PTI, PML-Q reach ‘complete settlement’

ISLAMABAD: The pressure exerted by the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) on its senior coalition partner, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), worked well and produced results as the government accepted all of the demands of the junior ally.

The PML-Q appeared to be more than satisfied after a meeting of the new government committee with its representatives led by Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi. “Complete settlement was reached during the discussion, and we now have no complaints and grievances, left unresolved, against the Imran Khan government,” a senior PML-Q leader, who was present in the deliberations, told The News on condition of anonymity.

To a question, he said that the other side was forthcoming, it didn’t nice to specify any timeframe or deadline to actually translate the accepted demands of the PML-Q into reality. The real issue was the misunderstanding that was created by abolishing the previous committee comprising Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and senior PTI leader Jehangir Tareen and bringing in a new body, he said. “That has been dispensed with.”

The PML-Q leader said that the government delegation held out the assurance that the PTI would not only implement all the commitments and pledges made by the earlier committee but any new demands made by the coalition partner would also be accepted and realised without any delay.

As Prime Minister Imran Khan suddenly dissolved the old committee, ousting Tareen from it, the PML-Q reacted angrily, and Pervaiz Elahi started voicing his severe annoyance publicly, advising the federal government to not listen to the whispers to spoil its relationship with alliance allies. The PML-Q articulated the view that the earlier committee had improved ties with it. Since the PTI regime is wholly dependent on smaller allies to remain in place, it was left with no option but to acquiesce to all the PML-Q demands.

Nearly two weeks back, the prime minister had constituted separate committees to eliminate the mistrust of his allies, including PML-Q, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M). Khattak was made chairman of all these forums.

The PML-Q leader said that the new local government law, passed by the Punjab Assembly, would be considerably amended as pressed by his party. He said that the statute, if implemented in its present form, would create chaos and mismanagement in Punjab.

He said the PML-Q stressed that the union councils, which the fresh law has scraped, should be revived, and added that the 30,000 new local tiers like village councils created in place of the union councils would devour massive funds on administrative expenses, leaving little for development projects. There is no point in disturbing the time-tested system.

Another PML-Q demand aired during the meeting, according to the participant, was that the districts should be restored, otherwise, a large number of administration officials, who were allocated to district in the old system, would have to be appointed for every tehsil.

The PML-Q leader said that the government team would talk to the prime minister about their demands to significantly alter the local bodies law. During the tense interlude, prominent PML-Q stalwart Chaudhry Moonis elahi had declared in a TV interview that they would not contest the local elections in collaboration with the PTI, of the new legislation was implemented as it is.

In the crisis that existed in the PTI-PML-Q relationship, which has now been taken care of, Tareen has become a casualty though for the time being because of the fiasco over tremendous hike of sugar prices and serious wheat shortage.

The PML-Q leader said that for the moment, Tareen seems to be out of the decision making process of the government and PTI but expressed the hope that he will stage a comeback after the dust, being kicked up by the PML-N and other opposition parties, will settle down.

Nothing was officially stated on the recent meeting of Tareen with the prime minister. However, it was believed that the scarcity of wheat flour and increase in sugar prices came under discussion apart from dissociating Tareen from the committee that was holding talks with the allies.

The PML-Q leader said that the issues of quick release of development funds to the schemes in the constituencies of its federal and Punjab lawmakers, empowering its ministers and appointing administration officials in the three districts, including Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin and Bahawalpur, where its nominees had won in the 2018 general elections have been resolved.

He appreciated the “positive” attitude and approach of all the members of the government team, which, he said, had come with the mandate to do away with the rupture in the relations.