Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have offered Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) the chief minister’s slot in Punjab in a bid to get its support in the no-trust-motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The insiders said Nawaz Sharif accepted the condition of PML-Q regarding the top slot in the country’s biggest province and said that the position of Punjab chief minister would be given to the PML-Q for six months. The development took place in the meeting between PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and the PML-Q leadership, especially Chaudhary Pervez Elahi.
Sources said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had tabled the recommendation of a six-month government, while on the other hand, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif was insisting on giving a two-month chief minister-ship to the PML-Q.
They said there was a difference between PML-Q and the PML-N about the announcement of the deal as the PML-N leaders wanted to disclose it after the voting on no-trust-motion while the PML-Q was insisting that it should be unveiled before it.
The insiders said that the PML-Q would also be offered eight seats in National Assembly and 20 seats in the provincial assembly while a delegation of PML-N would soon meet the Chaudhary brothers with a new proposal of Nawaz Sharif. The meeting was held in the backdrop of a report that the federal government conveyed to its key ally in Centre and Punjab, PML-Q, that it could not give the chief minister Punjab’s position to the party in return for supporting the government on the no-trust move against Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The sources in the government said that the PML-Q was conveyed that they could take the slot if PML-N was promising it to them in exchange for voting against PM Imran Khan in the no-trust move. “We are ready to give any other concessions to them other than giving the chief minister’s slot,” they said. It may be mentioned that there was a deadlock in the way of joint opposition in their efforts to bring a no-trust-motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan after PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif refused to give the office of Punjab chief minister to PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi.
Nawaz Sharif, according to the sources, turned down the proposal of offering Punjab chief minister slot to PML-Q if the no-trust motion succeeded against the government. They said that PPP Co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari was in favour of giving CM Punjab slot to PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and made it clear that the PTI allies would part ways with it.
PML-Q leader Tariq Bashir Cheema, meanwhile, said that the PML-N honoured them by visiting them, adding that they would do further consultation and decide within the next two to three days. The PML-Q leader said that BAP, MQM and the PML-Q had their own problems and they needed to make their own decisions. He said this while addressing a press conference after their meeting in Islamabad on Sunday. PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafiq was also present there.
Cheema said, “It is our desire that all allies should make a united decision.” Khawaja Saad Rafiq said, “Imran Khan’s governance is no governance. He lied, abused and is still abusing.” He said they came to the PML-Q, presented their case before it and told them that the PTI must go now. He rejected the news that Nawaz Sharif refused to give chief ministership to Chaudhary Pervez Elahi. Rafiq said Chaudhary Pervez Elahi took a stance and played a role when the PML-N leaders were in jail. Rafiq said the differences between them are over now.
