Four factions unite under new Muslim alliance

Islamabad: The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) of former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif has come out against a move by four League factions to unite under Sindhi veteran politician and spiritual leader Pir Pagara, saying their aim was to divide PML-N vote.

Leaders of the four League factions - PML-F, PML-Like Minded, PML-Z and PML-Awami - met in Karachi Friday and announced formation of a united Muslim League under the patronage of Pir Pagara, which will be called PML Alliance after completion of the spadework.

Framework

The meeting set up a committee under former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali to draft a framework for the united League and hold contacts with other parties including PML-N, the second largest political force after the Pakistan People's Party.

In a statement published yesterday, PML-N chief spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said these groups had sided with former military ruler Pervez Musharraf and had an approach and thinking different from the PML-N's "principled and ideological politics."

"Various alliances and individuals are being fielded with a plan to divide PML-N vote bank in the next general elections," he said.

No one from PML-Q led by Chaudhry Shujaat Husain turned up at Friday's unification meeting, but Pagara said they would join later.

The PML-Q chief along with the party's secretary general Mushahid Hussain Sayed met Pagara recently and both had publicly favoured unification.

But a meeting last week in Lahore between PML-Q provincial president Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and federal law minister Babar Awan may have affected the thinking of the party, observers said.

The Awan-Elahi meeting was seen as a calculated exploratory move by the Pakistan People's Party leadership regarding possible alignment with PML-Q should a changing political scenario warrant cooperation.