PML-N rejects rumours of govt deal

Staff Report

LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is planning no deal with the present government for the return of the Sharif family, currently living in exile, and is committed to its struggle to restore real democracy in Pakistan, said Punjab PML-N Secretary General Khawaja Saad Rafique at a press conference on Sunday.

Mr Rafique, in a reference to recent cooperation between the government and the religious alliance, said the Muthidda Majlis-e-Aamal (MMA) had not only bluffed its own coalition parties but had also violated the public trust it had earned through election promises. He tacked on a kind of admission that the PML-N had made a grave blunder forming an election alliance with the MMA, because it was only under that alliance that the MMA won any seats in the Punjab.

The MMA won three national and five provincial assemblies seats from Lahore only because of PML-N support, Mr Rafique said, and people only placed their trust in religious forces keeping in mind the MMA’s cooperation with the PPPP and the PML-N in the struggle to restore democracy. The MMA’s current attitude not only damages the opposition’s campaign against dictatorship but also gives the current dictator the ability to rule for years, he lamented.

Responding strongly to some speculation in the press that Maulana Fazlur Rehman may be appointed leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Mr Rafique said the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) was the only opposition and the opposition leader should be appointed from within its ranks. He called the present MMA a pocket union of the government in National Assembly, and rejected Maulana Rehman as opposition leader.

Replying to a question, the PML-N leader said the ARD was waiting for the right time to move against the government. “We enjoy the power of the masses and can throw the government at any time, we are just waiting for a suitable time,” he claimed. He urged people to make the MMA leaders account for their self-serving deal with the government in their own constituencies.

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