Khawaja Asif says God forbid, Parvez Elahi becomes ally

Ruling out the possibility of power-sharing with the Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid (PML-Q) in Punjab, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) senior leader and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif Monday said “God forbid, Parvez Elahi becomes our ally.”

Taking to journalists in Lahore, the minister said there will "definitely" be a change in Punjab, but denied Chief Minister Parvez Elahi's closeness with his party. “Imran Khan’s alleged dacoit has to be ousted."

Responding to a question, Asif said: “I have no knowledge about the power-sharing formula. If Elahi has sufficient votes, then why can’t he take the vote of confidence?”

Punjab's political climate continues to fluctuate for the past several months with allies — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) — and the opposition remaining at loggerheads with each other.

According to the sources, the PTI has decided not to take a vote of confidence in the Punjab Assembly session on January 9 after input from the party’s legal minds. It has planned to seek an opinion from the court.

CM Elahi, too, has rejected taking the vote of confidence in the Punjab Assembly. A PTI dissident lawmaker Nasir Khan Musazai — whose guest house was attacked with a hand grenade last night — also revealed that the Punjab chief minister is not in favour of dissolving the assembly.

Responding to a question pertaining to polls, Asif maintained that elections will take place at its time.

Slamming PTI Chairman Imran Khan, the defence minister said that people are disappointed after the PTI chief got exposed.

“People are finding new parties and new shelters for themselves because they often join new groups when the graph of a party goes down,” Khawaja Asif said.

It was reported last week that PTI's dissident members are preparing to form a new political party and have started negotiations.

According to sources, some eminent politicians from Central and South Punjab are likely to join the new party. Jahangir Tareen, Aleem Khan and people from the Chaudhry Sarwar group are being contacted, they said.

However, Awn Chaudhry and Aleem dismissed reports of forming a new political party.

Speaking with journalists, Asif also commented on PML-N’s internal party politics with regard to Maryam Nawaz being designated as its senior vice president.

“It was a good [decision] to appoint Maryam as the party organiser,” he said, informing that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s return is not conditioned to anything.

It was earlier reported that some senior party leaders are "upset" with the decision.

A senior PML-N leader told The News, on condition of anonymity, that "this decision is undemocratic and is aimed at furthering the Sharifs’ political dynasty". He revealed that hardly any senior leader outside the Sharif family was consulted before making the decision.