ISLAMABAD: In a last ditch effort to deter merger between PML-Q faction led by Chaudhry Parvez Elahi into Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Monday suspended the membership of Elahi and others and also issued show-cause notices to the fellow party leaders.
The show-cause notice, a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, said that Shujaat summoned an emergency party meeting after taking note of Elahi’s remarks on Sunday night.
A day ago, Elahi addressed a possible merger of the PML-Q into the PTI and said that his party’s decision would surface after their consultative meeting scheduled to be held on Monday (today) to thrash out the proposal.
At another point, Elahi was more candid in his response, saying his son, Moonis Elahi, also wanted both parties to merge and proceed in politics with a consensus. “Any such merger will strengthen the party,” Elahi had said.
The show-cause notice said that the meeting of senior PML-Q leaders took “strict notice” of Elahi’s comments.
“An explanation of your unconstitutional and illegal action has been sought,” the notice reads. It said that the PML-Q, as a political party, has its own identity, vote bank, party discipline and manifesto — which were all violated by Elahi’s comments.
The notice said that a period of seven days was being given to Elahi to provide an explanation for his comments otherwise proceedings would be initiated against him under Articles 16 and 50 of the party constitution, adding that Elahi’s basic party membership was being suspended until the explanation was provided.
Separately, show-cause notices were also sent to Moonis Elahi, Hussain Elahi and Senator Kamil Ali Agha, saying that it was found they were joining another party with Parvez.
The notice said that their National Assembly seats and senatorship were a trust of the PML-Q with them and any such move of theirs to join another party would be unconstitutional.
It added that if any of them wanted to join another party then they should relinquish their positions and resign otherwise the PML-Q would have no other option than to approach the Election Commission of Pakistan to de-seat them. The notices gave them a seven-day period to provide an explanation for themselves.
It merits mention that differences in the PML-Q ranks first appeared in March last year around the time of the no-confidence motion against former prime minister Imran Khan as Parvez and Moonis entered the PTI camp while Shujaat joined the then-opposition.
The same split was witnessed in July’s Punjab chief minister election saga as Shujaat supported the candidature of PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz instead of Parvez.
