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PPP and PML-N step up efforts to win over PML-Q

* Nawaz turns down Zardari’s telephone request for support in presidential election
* Nawaz tells party PML-Q is not enemy

ISLAMABAD: Campaigning for the September 6 presidential election gathered momentum on Thursday as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) stepped up efforts to win over the PML-Quaid (PML-Q).

Also on Thursday, PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari rang up PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif in an attempt to win back the estranged ally, seeking his support in the presidential election, sources familiar with the conversation said. “But Nawaz politely turned down Zardari’s request and said his party had fielded a non-partisan and respectable candidate” in line with the agreements the two parties had made.

In separate meetings at Punjab House, Labour Minister Khursheed Shah and Industries Adviser Manzoor Wattoo discussed the presidential election and the restoration of the sacked judiciary with Nawaz Sharif and PML-N’s Chaudhry Nisar.

PML-Q not enemy: Nawaz told PML-N members in a meeting on Thursday that the party had no rivalry with the PML-Q. Senior PML-N leaders briefed him on their contacts with the party. Geo News said PML-N leaders linked reconciliation with the PML-Q to the withdrawal of its candidate, Mushahid Hussain.

PML-Q President Shujaat Hussain told a press conference in Islamabad that PML-N presidential candidate Justice (r) Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui had met him for support. “But I told him that if his party asks us for support, then we will decide.”

Also on Thursday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani made a phone call to PML-Q Punjab President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and sought his party’s support for Zardari. Sources privy to the conversation said Elahi declined and said his party would support its own candidate.

Meanwhile, PML-Q leaders initiated contacts with the party’s splinter groups and a meeting between the dissidents and Shujaat is likely today. Sources said a group in Senate led by Nilofar Bakhtiar had assured PML-Q it would follow the party’s policy. Shujaat and Mushahid are likely to meet Pir Pagaro on Sunday to seek his party’s support for Mushahid. But sources said the party has decided to vote for Zardari. muhammad bilal/irfan ghauri/ agencies/daily times monitor

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