Split appears in PML-Q ranks

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Muslim League-Q here on Wednesday fractured into two factions within 48 hours of the ouster of party’s creator Pervez Musharraf as more than twenty party MNAs against the whim of Q-League’s central command called on Prime Minister at lunch and dinner in two separate groups.
A delegation of party legislators comprising Arbab Zakaullah, Jam Mir Muhammad Yousaf, Sardar Bahadur Ahmed Khan Sihar, Amjad Abbas, Jaffar Khan Leghari, Engineer Usman, Ghulam Hyder Samejo, Dewan Aashiq Hussain Bukhari, Mehboob Sultan, Saima Bharwana, Saeed Zafar and Riaz Fatiana called on Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and had a lunch with him.
Though Q-League legislators termed it a courtesy call meant to develop congenial relations between treasury and Opposition benches yet the sources told this correspondent that in the meeting PML-Q lawmakers assured the Prime Minister of their full support in the forthcoming presidential election. The presence of Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo in the meeting further strengthens the idea that the meeting was more than a goodwill gesture.  
“In the meeting between the PPP Prime Minister and the PML-Q lawmakers, the latter also assured the former that they would support PPP-led government’s move to abolish 17th amendment�, the sources claimed. Sources told that the Prime Minister said that the government was trying its best to complete the required numbers for the elimination of 58-2(B), National Security Council, condition for holding the office of Prime Minister for third term and elimination of Local Bodies Ordinance 2002.
Riaz Fatiana talking to The Nation said that it was a courtesy call in which the lawmakers from Opposition presented different suggestions to the Prime Minister regarding Bait-ul-Maal, Zakat, price hike and law and order. He said that on the request of PML-Q parliamentarians, the Prime Minister had ordered to construct a gymnasium in the parliament lodges. Fatiana said that Saddique Khan Baloch, Aslam Bodla and Syed Ayaz Ali Shah Shirazi had to attend the luncheon but due to some inevitable reasons could not join them. Sardar Bahadur Ahmed Khan Sihar said that in the meeting Q-League parliamentarians presented different suggestions on various issues confronting the nation.