LAHORE:
Close friends of President Asif Ali Zardari living in the United Arab Emirates have approached former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in an effort to get him to rejoin the Pakistan Peoples Party, or at least to persuade him not to ally with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Sources privy to the development said that the mediators met with Qureshi on November 18 to discuss the matter. “He did not categorically refuse to reconcile with the president.”
Sources said that the presidency had conveyed to Qureshi that his resignation from the party had not yet been accepted. Qureshi announced on November 14 that he was resigning from the party (in his words, “the Zardari League”) as well as his seat in the National Assembly.
Qureshi, who is due to return to Pakistan on November 21 and meet PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif the next day, told the president’s emissaries that he would make his final decision after meeting Sharif.
Sources said the PPP would not accept Qureshi’s resignation before then. They added that the party had done a rough survey in the former foreign minister’s constituency, NA-148, and found that he would easily win a by-election there.
The president is “very worried” about the possibility of Qureshi joining the PML-N, said a PPP source, as this would hurt the PPP vote-bank in upper Sindh and southern Punjab. He confirmed the president was seeking to bring Qureshi back into the PPP, but it was premature to say whether this would happen.
PPP MPA Dr Akhtar Malik, a close ally of Qureshi whose PP-202 constituency falls within the boundaries of NA-148, said that there had been contact between the two sides but refused to elaborate. He said Qureshi’s meeting with Nawaz would “clear 60 per cent of the smoke” around his future. Malik said that the presidency had also approached him to reconcile but he had refused and told them that he stood with Qureshi.
PPP Information Secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira and presidential spokesman Farahatullah Babar were not available for comment.
Punjab Assembly supporters
Meanwhile, Qureshi’s so-called two-member forward bloc in the Punjab Assembly is already showing strains, with one of the members indicating that he will remain loyal to the PPP. Malik Abbas Raan said that he had met with PPP leader Raja Riaz on November 17 and assured him of his support, provided his demands were met.
Raan said though he had welcomed Qureshi at the Multan Airport when the former foreign minister announced his exit from the PPP, he could not quit his MPA and party positions until he got permission to do so from his constituents.
However, sources said that Raan was quitting because he had not been guaranteed support for his re-election. Raan is a member of the Punjab Assembly from PP-20, which is also within the boundaries of NA-148.
Sources said that when Qureshi had last discussed the matter with the PML-N, the party had agreed to letting Dr Malik win back PP-202, but had not agreed to support Raan at PP-201.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 20th, 2011.
COMMENTS (40)
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SMQ should join PTI
BUCK UP SHAH SAHIB ............ BUCK UP POLITICIANS
He has dragged this out too long to retain any of the positive publicity push for any party he ends up with. Now anyone he ends up with will just get accused of being the highest bidder, not the better choice.
SMQ has got best chance to rejoin PPP... otherwise there will be lose-lose situation for both Zardari and SMQ. however this this is most suitable for him instead of looking towards PTI or PML(N).
He'll be the next Prime Minister under President Musharraf. You heard it here first.
@Ahmed: ha ha clean politicians and PML-N are two opposite things, gosh not again
if rejoins PPP..HAHA..what a joke it will be...
@Ahmed: has N league made punjab a paradise with all this intellectual force they have at their disposal?
perhaps biggest test of zardari.. so far he has passed all of them somehow... lets see how does he manage this one!
SMQ is blackmailing both PML and PTI. this,s third rated politics.
I would request Mr Qureshi to join MMA in the supreme national interest.
The Toru Brigade with turn its guns on Qureshi if he Joins PMLN.
You are Right Aslam Bhai. Most Internet Revolutionaries and Media will project something like this "yes if he Join PTI, he is a man of prninciple and if he join any other party, he is man of money."
this is the third party shah mahmood is changing, so what does that make him???
which one of the readers thinks that ishaq dar is clean and financially competent. doesn't this reader know that ishaq dar was the chief money launderer for nawaz sharif' money, something which he has publicly admitted to?
SMQ is a rolling stone, i wonder if he gathers any moss?
Zardari Sb is playing the same game with Quereshi Sb which he has been very successfully playing with MQM i.e. negotiating with MQM to re-join every time resulting in loss of their credibility. This time target is sweet Quereshi sb. Let's see how long Zardari sb take to make this hit.
@Rational Mind: yes if he Join PTI, he is a man of prninciple and if he join any other party, he is man of money.
What logic, ROFL. seriously, you PTI internet revolutinaries need to come up with some better joke than this.
@Rauf: And I am sick of people like you, who don't have any agenda than to promto an establisment based party. at least come up with some valid argumetns, if you have any?
rather than this old nonsense of 'revolution'. your establishment has been bringing these 'revolutions' in the country since 1947 and we are in total mess from these revolutions.
so grow up,
The perception that he is up for auction is damaging enough.
Rejoining PPP will be not good for his future politics
There is a lot of difference between Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Mr. Altaf Hussain of MQM.
Mr. Altaf Hussain time and again came back into the fold of PPP whereas Mr. Qureshi has a strict stance.
There is a lot of wheeling and dealing going on in country politics and I can see the visible and un-repairable cracks in PPP ranks.
On the other hand the country’s establishment is also not happy as how the country is been towed by the present govenrment.
What we lack is persistence of our policies and the actions that are taken on temporary basis.
There are number of cases pending before the Supreme Court of Pakistan in various matters whether it is rental power projects, corruption, or the fast growing inflation in the country.
Any government cannot remain in the government for an indefinite period, if a common man is not happy about day to day decisions that are taken by the government.
Qureshi is not going to come back in PPP. He has taken the decision and he knows very well that he does not have any political future with the PPP, as he has been sidelined in Raymond Davis case.
Any lessons on morality or character would be very nice to listen to in a drawing room discussion, a cup of tea would be great too. On ground, PTI is no-more, regardless to revolutionary morals!
Pakistan political scenario always revolve around these things, I'm also supporter of PTI but at the moment Imran is seemingly confused with which way to go either to go for final round or just wait and go in partnership .
Sorry to say our system is so much crushed that he might have to come up with some old and vague style of politics to come and capture seats. Yes! In my view i don't feel there is any harm in doing it at least he can avail a CHANCE for once!
There is No Morality in Pakistani Politics... I shall be disappointed if Mr. Qureshi returns to PPP. After all the Mud Slinging how can they behave as if nothing ever happened. All this reiterates that Imran Khan is the only Hope for Pakistan.
Qureshi would go where he can get his pound of flesh. There is bidding war going on for a religious and political leader among all the major political parties. It only proves that Qureshi is a real character and not a man of character.
wait till those revolutionaries start calling him corrupt and cheater.. haha
If Qureshi joins back PPP now he would be doomed by the public. He would lose all his credibility . I am amazed how the PPP first abused Shah Mehmood Qureshi and now they say they haven't accepted his resignation. This is horse trading, not politics.
PTI you mean "the one-man army" aka, the going-to-be dictator aka the naive idealist, aka the playboy turned philanthropist .........ah of course he shd join him ...wd make perfect sense!
All of a sudden the PPP has found their long lost love for Shah Mehmood Qureishi. Have they? No they have not.Bbut are only trying to protect their vote bank and assembly strength. Salams
N League is an established party with very senior and clean politicians. Ishaq Dar and his financial policy, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on commerce, Ghous Ali Shah on adminstration and Defence, Ahsan Iqbal on Education and Information, Javed Hashmi on popularity, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Mehtab Ahmed Khan as the cool headed policy makers. As well as a very honourable Ch. Jaffer Iqbal Gujjar in Southern Punjab. Qureshi in the PMLN would seem good because all of these together can knock some sense into Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz already supports them. Qureshi will help these professionals actually get something done under Sharif.
Qurashi is behaving like a second-hand-car-salesman. If his resignation from the PPP was a matter of principle, then he should show the same principle in his choice of fellow travelers. If he is shopping around for a deal - Zardari's preferred manner - then he is nothing more than a Lotta that Firdaus Awan accused him of.
What happen to him joining PTI, i am sure those 'revolutinaries' will be awaiting now... i am expecting nearly 1 houndreds comments here asking Quershi to join the 'bands of self pro-calimed revolutinaries'.