LAHORE – PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has failed to dissuade TMQ chief Tahirul Qadri from his long march despite he offered an early caretaker set up and electoral reforms to Qadri, The Nation learnt.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi held a meeting with Tahirul Qadri on Friday in order to convince him to call off his long march. The PML-Q leaders offered an early caretaker setup and some immediately doable electoral reforms to the TMQ chief.
Qadri refused to call off the march but promised to resolve his issues amicably once he would reach the federal capital.
According to sources, the long march will be a ‘controlled event’ which would pose no danger to the ruling coalition.
Sources said that the Chaudhries told Qadri that the government would bring electoral reforms even if it would have to enforce them through ordinance. They conveyed to Qadri that for his political image he could lead the march but only symbolically, sources added.
The TMQ chief who had suffered a serious blow after the withdrawal of the MQM succumbed to the pressure of coalition partners but fearing serious damage to his credibility told the PML-Q leadership that he would have to lead the march, sources said.  Talking to the media after the meeting, PML-Q leaders said that early polls could not be ruled out.
They said that they were mandated by their coalition partners for negotiation with Qadri and offered him a formula to address his demands.  They added that launching long march was the democratic right of each group or political force.
They hoped that issues of Qadri would be settled on the conclusion of the march or may be earlier.  They said that they would brief their coalition partners about the demands of TMQ chief.  Qadri said that the march would go on as scheduled and nobody should get the impression that this meeting was aimed at calling off or delaying the march.
He added that he would looking forward to the resolve of the ruling coalition regarding his demands, which might be settled during people’s parliament meeting on January 14 in Islamabad.
Both sides said that similar negotiations would continue in future.