PTI forms committee for seat adjustment with PML-Q

Senior leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Fawad Chaudhry and Pervez Khattak part of committee

LAHORE:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday formed a three-member committee to discuss seat adjustment with the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) for the upcoming elections.

The committee would be headed by PTI Vice President Shah Mehmood Qureshi and would include Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry and former defence minister Pervez Khattak.

Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry has confirmed that party chairman Imran Khan formed the committee for seat-adjustment negotiations and to look into issues of electoral adjustment.

The first meeting of the committee was convened yesterday.

According to reports, PML-Q has agreed to dissolve the Punjab Assembly under the condition that it will receive 25 to 30 provincial seats in South Punjab, Gujarat Division and Sialkot in the next general elections.

A day earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a meeting with PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat following Imran's announcement of December 23 as the date for his extreme measure to dissolve Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assemblies to force fresh general elections in the country.

The ruling coalition tasked Chaudhry Shujaat with preventing the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly by his cousin and fellow PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.

Read Moonis meets Imran to defuse PTI, PML-Q tensions after Elahi's remarks

According to sources, it was agreed that the federal ministers from the PML-N would contact the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leaders for consultation on moving a no-confidence motion in the Punjab Assembly or asking Chief Minister Elahi to seek a vote of confidence.

Imran Khan, while culminating his long march last month, had said that he would dissolve the provincial assemblies, where the PTI was in power. He had also said that the party lawmakers in Sindh and Balochistan would also resign.

After consulting party leaders and lawmakers for three weeks, Imran had announced that the dissolution would take place on Friday, December 23. The dissolution and resignations would trigger fresh elections within 90 days in nearly two-thirds of the total constituencies.

However, on Sunday party's General Secretary had announced that the PTI has no plans to quit the Balochistan Assembly. 

Since Imran’s announcement, the ruling coalition has stepped up its efforts to prevent such a scenario, particularly the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly. In this regard, Shehbaz came to Lahore on Sunday and held back-to-back meetings with Shujaat and Zardari.

According to Express News, Shehbaz and Zardari agreed to entrust the task of stopping the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly to Chaudhry Shujaat. Quoting the PPP sources, the report added that the final decision regarding the Punjab Assembly situation would be taken with the consent of the PML-Q chief.