Senior PML leaders may lose party posts

The Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-QA) appears to be anticipating a loss in some posts to other PML factions as a unification plan goes ahead. This is creating some unrest within the party, and explains why the final unification continues to be delayed.

Although it was PML-QA President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain's decision to either keep the present officials in office or appoint new ones, sources close to him said he had already decided to keep his trusted aides to maintain a tight grip on the party's affairs in the presence of people like Pir Pagaro and Hamid Nasir Chattha.

Shujaat was asked to appoint federal and provincial officials of the united PML by the leaders of the factions in their last meeting.

During the meetings, PML-QA representatives made it clear to the other factions that the Chaudhrys from Gujarat would never tolerate anyone's dominance in the Punjab, which was the nucleus of power in national politics.

Sources said as neither PML-Junejo President Chattha nor PML-Jinnah President Manzoor Wattoo had demanded important portfolios in the Punjab, the united PML Punjab president's team would be subservient to the Chaudhrys' authority.

Punjab PML-QA President Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, technically speaking at least, is violating the Political Parties Order (PPO) 2002 and his party's constitution by holding the chief minister's office and a party office.

Sources said the PML-QA's powerbrokers feared that the inclusion of anti-Pervez elements from the other PML factions in the mainstream might cause the Chaudhrys some trouble.

In the centre, PML-QA General Secretary Salim Saifullah Khan was likely to keep his office along with PML-QA Senior Vice President Majeed Malik and PML-QA Information Secretary Senator Tariq Azeem in the proposed united PML, sources added.

Sources said PML-QA's Senior Vice President Iftikhar Gilani, Chief Organiser Azeem Chaudhry and Finance Secretary Tariq Banday might lose their party posts. Gilani's expected removal might be based on his contacts with former PML-QA president Mian Azhar and Pakistan Peoples Party Chairperson Benazir Bhutto.