LAHORE - The PML-Q, which came into existence with the blessings of a military ruler, is facing serious difficulties to get significant recruits during its ‘organisational reconnaissance drive’ launched to establish it as a real party of the populace.
The PML-Q Punjab started tours of various districts of the province from November 25 as part of the party’s reconnaissance campaign in a bid to build its organisation and real support base on the ground. However, during the tours of Okara, Pakpattan, Jhang, and Nankana Sahib, the party failed to get onboard fresh meaningful recruits to create an impression that it is a party of the populace like the PML-N and PTI.
Resultantly, the PML-Q after failing to get good reports regarding party position in some districts of South, North and Central Punjab has to postpone its organisational tours till assurance of the support of even average political figures and groups.
PML-Q Punjab senior vice president Raja Basharat, who is steering the drive, was not available for comment over the issue despite repeated phone calls of this correspondent.
While, another PML-Q provincial leader declined to comment over the issue saying that he was busy in his business activities and has no time to spare for the party for quite sometime in future.
However, a close aide of PML-Q provincial leadership said that the party leader who declined to comment over failure of party’s first leg of the organisational drive had participated at least in two of the tours.
About Raja Basharat, he said that party’s provincial senior vice president is avoiding the newsmen to cover his failure during the first round of organisational tours of Punjab ahead of local government elections.
Narrating the story of organisational tours in a chat with this scribe, a PML-Q leader from North Punjab said, “The party is getting support of the leaders who are either refused entry by the PTI and PML-N or got retired from active politics and have no impact in their respective areas.” He said the PML-Q has miserably failed to win public support during its first leg of the organisational tours.
He remarked the PML-Q leadership, of which Raja Basharat is an important player, never made any serious effort to establish the party’s identity. He added major failure of the PML-Q lies in the fact that its leadership during its unchallenged stint in power failed to establish its vote base, which could only be possible by establishing a true organisational party base.
He said that with the fall of Pervez Musharraf and popular wave of the PML-N in Punjab during 2008 polls, the PML-Q lost many of its winning horses to the ruling party and many more to the PTI prior to the 2013 General Elections. He added that what left with the PML-Q was undesirable for the two mainstream parties of the province.
The PML-Q, which is considering starting a membership drive next year, perhaps won’t be able to do so without completing its meaningful organisational setup in the province.