PML-N likely to take up overtures by Q-League dissidents

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and a key leader of the PML-N, told Dawn that a number of PML-Q lawmakers were in touch and the party leadership would now decide whether or not to accept them. — File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The PML-N is expected to take up overtures by a dissident faction of the PML-Q in the National Assembly and the Q League`s support for the creation of new provinces in the country at a meeting of its central executive committee on Tuesday.
Sources in PML-N told Dawn that since it would be the first meeting of the CEC after the PML-Q joined the PPP-led coalition government, extra input was being ensured from the party`s rank and file for crucial decision making. The entire focus of discussion would be on getting maximum results in the next general election, they added.
The CEC is expected to take a final decision on whether to accept the Q-League lawmakers, who have been in touch with the PML-N leadership, after the Chaudhrys-led party joined the cabinet.
Five PML-Q senators have already announced that they will sit on the opposition benches.
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and a key leader of the PML-N, told Dawn that a number of PML-Q lawmakers were in touch and the party leadership would now decide whether or not to accept them. He said their names would be disclosed at a proper stage.
A PML-N lawmaker claimed that about a dozen O-League MNAs were ready to join his party and it might accept. But, he said, some party leaders were opposing the move to bring the O-League dissidents into the PML-N fold.
“We are already a major opposition party in the National Assembly and they (dissidents) are coming to the party just to ensure their tickets for the next elections,” said another PML-N legislator.
Although the party needed support of the 48-member unification block carved out of the PML-Q MPAs in Punjab Assembly to remain in power, there was no such situation in the National Assembly, he added.
However, he said that if the Q-League dissidents in the National Assembly wanted to join the N-League unconditionally, there should be no objection.
The second most important agenda item of the CEC meeting would be the party`s official stance on the creation of new provinces.
Division of Punjab has so far proved to be an Achilles heel for the PML-N. When Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif recently talked about the creation of Karachi as a separate province, political observers termed it a mere reaction to other parties` demand for creation new provinces in Punjab.
One of the agreement points on the basis of which the PML-Q decided to join the federal government was creation of new Saraiki and Hazara provinces.
The PML-N sources said the CEC was also expected to come up with a formal stand whether it would support the division of existing provinces into new ones.
A PML-N office-bearer said the party was against the creation new provinces merely on the basis of language and ethnicity. He said the PML-N would recommend formation of new provinces as administrative units because it believed that division on the basis of language and ethnicity would create disunity in the country. For which, he said, the party was going to call for constitution of a broad-based commission having representation of all political parties like that of the committee on constitutional reforms which came up with the 18th and 19th Amendments.
When asked if the PML-N felt marginalised on the political landscape after the PML-Q joined the PPP government, Chaudhry Nisar said this unholy alliance had proved to be a blessing in disguise for the PML-N because it would help them target both President Asif Zardari and Chaudhry Shujaat in one go. And moreover, he said, it would help the people know that the PPP and the PML-Q were sitting together for their own vested interests, and not for any good of the country.