LAHORE – The PML-Q and the PPP failed to reach a consensus on the seat adjustment, besides other thorny issues during a meeting between the two sides on Friday, TheNation learnt.
Insiders in the PML-Q privy to the details regarding the meeting between party’s top leadership and close associates of President Zardari said that Chaudhries were not ready to show flexibility on some seats and districts.
During the meeting, the PML-Q high command pointed out the secret wheeling and dealing of the PPP Punjab President Manzoor Wattoo to create more dents in the PML-Q.
They told the visiting PPP delegation that they would neither withdraw from their claim over NA-105, Gujrat nor on the seats of Sargodha, Jhang, Khanewal, Attock and some other districts of central Punjab.
PPP federal minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar defeated PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain at his home constituency in 2008.
According to the existing seat adjustment formula, the PPP has the right to claim NA-105, however PML-Q senior leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi launched an aggressive electoral campaign from this constituency.  The PML-Q leadership told the delegation that Wattoo and some other PPP leaders were offering nomination to PML-Q parliamentarians in Jhang, Khanewal and Attock for the next polls.
The PPP delegation would convey the reservations of the PML-Q to its co-Chairperson President Zardari, while the fate of the political engagement between the two partners in the federal government expected to be decided during a meeting between PML-Q top leadership and the president at Bilawal House in Lahore.  Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, flanked by Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Moonis Elahi, Raja Basharat, Kamil Ali Agha and Chaudhry Zaheeruddin, led his party during the meeting with the PPP leadership in Lahore.
Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira led the PPP delegation comprising Manzoor Wattoo, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Rana Farooq Saeed and Tanvir Ashraf Kaira.
A PML-Q spokesman claimed that both sides agreed awarding National Assembly nomination according to the existing formula, while a consultative meeting to decide on the Punjab Assembly seats would be held on February 15.