PML-Q decision on Mush role in party after his return

[Naveed Yaseen]

The ‘real’ Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q)’s central leadership would decide about former President General ® Pervez Musharraf’s role in the party on his return, The News learnt Friday.

The PML-Q central President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the other day, rejected Musharraf’s idea of the party’s reunification and taking over as its top leader. Shujaat’s son-in-law MPA Moonis Elahi had brought the message for his uncle from the London-based ex-president recently.

A former aide, who remains in touch with his former boss, when contacted, told this correspondent that the ex-president was unhappy over the like-minded group’s inability to win back majority of the

legislators in the Parliament as well as in the provincial assemblies.

Likewise, he was expecting a mixed response from the PML-Q president instead of a categorical no to his place in the party, he himself had formed in 2000, the aide

maintained, requesting anonymity.

Another matter of major concern for the former president was the popularity graph of Mian Nawaz Sharif constantly going up and the Western and local media portraying him as a replacement of incumbent Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, if and when the general election was to be held.

“The anticipated ascendancy of PML-N Quaid to become the chief executive for the third term presents a relatively grim political future for Musharraf. He may ultimately decide to defer his homecoming,” he said.

In his recent interviews, the ex-military ruler said he would stage a comeback to Pakistan after exhausting his international academic commitments of lectures. While he stays away, the PML-N persists with a campaign for his trial under Article 6 of the Constitution.

The PML-Q like-minded group’s President Senator Salim Saifullah Khan, when contacted and asked about the newly elected Secretary General Humayun Akhtar’s meeting with Musharraf, said there was nothing wrong if the two had met.

“What will be the circumstances when he comes back to Pakistan, no one knows obviously. But I am not to take a decision, the party will sit down to ponder over Musharraf’s role,” the politician from Lakki Marwat said in reply to a question.

He dispelled the impression that they had formed the dissident group after getting a green signal from the former president, saying it was their own initiative to purge the party of family politics and lethargy. “Some elements also allege we are working on behalf of Mian Nawaz Sharif, which is totally incorrect,” he contended.

When asked PML-Q parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat said he believed the ex-president was interested in returning and playing a political innings.

However, he said when Musharraf sought his opinion in this context, he clearly told him that if he wanted to join active politics, he would have to return to Pakistan as early as possible after the November deadline of ban on his political activities.

Faisal met the ex-president a few weeks back in London and asked him to change his soldierly mind-set and carve out a political role with credibility, as he had damaged himself by ditching PML-Q, following his deal with the PPP prior to the general election.

“I told the former president that he would have to work really hard after joining politics, as he neither enjoyed a strong platform as did Benazir Bhutto nor like Nawaz Sharif,” the PML-Q leader said.

On his ‘plain talk’, Faisal noted Musharraf promised to look into what he had told him on joining active politics.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=195693