Hawks seek expulsion of renegades from 'Q'

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) central command is mulling over the option of striking off the membership of renegades by calling an emergent meeting of partys general council, TheNation learnt reliably on Thursday. As the dissidents are resolved to dislodge Chaudhrys from the top position of the Q-League in the upcoming party elections and have started hectic lobbying in this regard, Chaudhry brothers are being forced by their loyal supporters to oust 'rebels from PML-Q on the charges of violating party discipline. Those party parliamentarians and leaders who have floated the idea of getting rid of intriguers argue that these dissidents lack support of majority of partys general council and their expulsion from official register of Q-League will not face any resistance, told the sources. The sources said that the hawks from Chaudhrys camp believed that the time had approached that the renegades be punished and told to form their own political entity if they had the guts to do so. The proposal came under consideration when as many as 16 party MNAs attended a dinner hosted by Humayon Akhtar Khan at the Islamabad Club a few days back. It was reported that Riaz Fatyana spoke harshly against Chaudhrys on the occasion asking his colleagues to gear up efforts to dislodge them from the top position of the party, said the sources. Ch Shujaat Hussain is not ready to follow the line, as he argues that he enjoys support of the majority in partys general council and can win its support in forthcoming party elections for getting elected third time as the president of PML-Q or can get extension in his tenure of the office for one year (as per situation), so it will be useless to go through such exercise that will trigger further rifts within the party, said the sources. They added that Shujaat was in favour of defeating rebels at election platform. According to the sources, Chaudhrys supporters are asking them to take disciplinary action against dissident elements as was taken against Sumera Malik last year when she was removed from her position of partys women wing president with no resistance at all. Annoyed with the conspiracies of renegades, Chaudhrys camp considers that the dissidents want to take control of the party with the purpose of selling it at a higher price to any other political party with which they would be able to clinch power sharing deal, said a PML-Q MNA seeking not to be named. If there are left only two PML-Q men in the assembly, it would make no difference but we cant afford those people who remain continuously engaged in hatching conspiracies against the party, he said, adding that the time had approached that the wheat should be separated with chaff. The intra-party elections are likely to be held on Aug 12 for which some party sources claim that the party Constitution would be amended in mid-July to facilitate the process of re-election of Shujaat for a third term, as the party constitution bars anyone from holding the partys top slot for the third consecutive time, while other sources contradict the first report and say that on the election day Gen Council would be asked to give extension to the sitting President Shujaat for at least one year, therefore, there is no need to amend the constitution ahead of polls. Meanwhile, party central media coordinator Ghulam Mustafa Malik told TheNation that PML-Q President Ch Shujaat has appointed election commissioners for the centre, provinces and federal capital. He said that Kamil Ali Agha was appointed election commissioner for centre while Imtiaz Ranjha for Islamabad, Zaman Qureshi for Punjab, Mian Yahya Shah Kakakhel for NWFP, Mir Naseer Mengal for Balochistan and Senator Abdul Ghafoor Qureshi would be the election commissioner for Sindh. He said that applications would be received from all the candidates contesting from all the four provinces and Islamabad by July 07. He said that the elections of provincial presidents and secretary generals of PML-Q would commence on July 08.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt