Change of loyalties: PML-Q unruffled by Muqam’s departure

Senator Mushahid Hussain hopes the former member’s move to PML-N will bridge gulf between Musharraf, Nawaz.

PESHAWAR:
The Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid (PML-Q) appears unruffled by the change of Ameer Muqam’s loyalties to the Nawaz league.

Muqam, who was PML-Q’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief, joined PML-N earlier this week in a move political commentators said affected the Q-league’s chances and visibility in the militancy-hit province.

“Hopefully, his [Muqam’s] flight to the PML-N will serve as a bridge between General Pervez Musharraf and Nawaz Sharif,” said PML-Q Secretary General Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed in a talk with reporters in Peshawar on Saturday.

He said that PML-Q will form a committee to reorganise the party in the province and launch a membership campaign. A new provincial caretaker will be elected with consensus, he said.


Speaking about reopening of Nato supply routes, he said that supplies should resume once drone strikes end.

“The PML-Q’s public and private stance has been that resumption of Nato supplies should be linked to end of drone strikes,” he said. “The strikes are a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and kills innocent children and women.”

Responding to a question on rumours that the government has already made a decision on Nato supplies and is only using the Parliament for validation, Mushahid said that recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security will first be put before the Parliament and only then will the government arrive at a decision.

Mushahid was also critical of the US bounty for Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed. “The announcement [of head money] is an attempt to link the Kashmir cause with terrorism and please India.” Taking a dig at the Nawaz league, he said that the PML-Q had first taken up the issue of JuD and the PML-N had now taken the same line.

Mushahid said that region cannot be peaceful until Afghanistan in. “Events in Kabul impact Quetta and Karachi,” he hypothesised.
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