Qureshi to disgruntled MPs: Stop playing both ends against middle

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has agreed to meet and listen to the reservations of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers who have come out in support of estranged party leader Jahangir Tareen, Geo News reported on Monday.

The premier, according to sources, is scheduled to meet at least 30 PTI lawmakers today (Tuesday). The party's MPAs and MNAs, who are close to the estranged leader, will present Tareen's case to the prime minister, confirmed the sources.

Last week, the PTI lawmakers backing Tareen refused to hold a meeting with a committee formed by the premier to hold talks with them, insisting they wanted the prime minister himself to listen to their reservations.

"Imran Khan is our captain, and we will present our grievances only in front of him," the lawmakers had said, according to sources.

Earlier, the PTI lawmakers had offered to quit the assemblies in support of Tareen, during a meeting held at his Lahore residence.

Sources privy to the meeting informed Geo News that more than 30 members of both the national and provincial assemblies attended the huddle and discussed the roadmap ahead for the party, with a majority of them offering to resign.

According to sources, the offer of resignations was not unanimously agreed upon by all lawmakers as a measure suited for the time being. The lawmakers were, however, of the opinion that if "injustices" against Tareen continued, then the option of resignations from the assemblies must be exercised. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said while addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of South Punjab Secretariat at the Circuit House in Multan that the PTI activists must not worry about four MPAs or MNAs going astray.

Without taking any names, the minister said the disgruntled people must take one position and not play both sides against the middle. Qureshi said the PTI was the only party which had taken steps for political restructuring after culmination of One Unit and 1973 Constitution.

"Today is a historic day. It is an honour for the PTI that it has initiated measures for the South Punjab province in shape of opening of a secretariat in Multan,” he said.

Qureshi stated that it was devolution of power, and the funds allocated for the region would now be spent here unlike the past. He lambasted the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), which did nothing for the South Punjab masses.

He said Syed Yusuf Gilani, when became the prime minister, could not make the new province. He said the PPP always told the masses that it would create a new province for them in South Punjab, while the PML-N made the people fight on it.

The minister felicitated Prime Minister Imran Khan as he got the honour of taking practical steps for the new province by opening a secretariat for South Punjab.

“The critics of PTI should see for themselves that the party had laid the foundation of new province by setting up the secretariat here,” the minister remarked.

ZA Bhutto, he recalled, had allocated quota for rural and urban Sindh, and that measure had opened job opportunities for the Sindhi masses. “The future decisions of South Punjab would be made here and not in Lahore,” Qureshi said.