–Elahi says PML-Q wants union with PTI to continue till next elections
–Khattak says ‘small and insignificant’ issues between govt and PML-Q were ‘blown out of proportion’
LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and its key ally, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), on Monday finally resolved their differences after a five-member government committee held successful talks with coalition partners to resolve pending issues involving development funds and administrative powers.
The government committee, comprising Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar, Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and Defence Minister Pervez Khattak among others held its maiden meeting at Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi’s residence. Prime Minister Imran’s confidant Jahangir Tareen was, however, missing from the delegation.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Elahi maintained that several issues were discussed with the government committee.
“Each government faces a different set of challenges. Therefore, whatever situation arises, we will face it together, and with mutual consultation and discussions, will try to find a solution,” he said, adding that the PML-Q wants the tabdeeli (change) witnessed during the tenure of Prime Minister Imran Khan to benefit those at the very tail-end.
“There has been a lot of talk on where the bottlenecks are and how they can be resolved. But, one thing is very clear, we do not have any doubts about the leadership, intentions, and struggle of Imran Khan.
“We [PML-Q] want our union with [the PTI] to continue till the next elections so that we can stand before the people after offering solutions to their problems,” he said, adding that then the people will know that they can deliver.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Khattak stated that the misunderstanding regarding the government’s allies jumping ship had been removed.
“None of them are abandoning us,” he said, adding that the issues between the government and the PML-Q were small and “insignificant”, but were blown out of proportion.
“We were in contact throughout this whole process. We were partners before and will continue to be partners,” he said, adding that the purpose of the meeting was to dispel the misunderstandings that there were major differences between the two parties.
“There were some issues that were resolved after sitting down. If you don’t take your allies on board, the situation can worsen. Therefore, we will carry out decisions after mutual consultation,” he said.
“Issues will keep cropping up, they crop up in our homes too, but we will have to settle them. We assure the people that this partnership will last for the next three years,” Khattak maintained.
Meanwhile, talking to Pakistan Today, PML-Q leader and Federal Minister for Housing Tariq Basheer Cheema said that the government team had promised them to implement the decisions taken during the meeting from Tuesday.
Commenting on the PML-Q’s demand for another ministerial berth in the federal cabinet, Cheema said that they had dropped their demand for making Chaudhry Moonis Elahi a federal minister because PM Imran was not comfortable with the suggestion. “We did not raise this issue during the talks,” he said.
PTI-PML RELATIONS TURN SOUR:
The PTI government’s relations with PML-Q had gone sour after PM Imran had abruptly changed the committee, which was led by Tareen, working on addressing the administrative and development issues being confronted by the coalition partners in Punjab and the Centre.
It had emerged that the PML-Q wanted to have its administrative share of the districts in Punjab, where it had its political base with winning MPAs and MNAs. Since the change, the PML-Q leadership wanted that several decisions, including a due share in the administrative power through bureaucracy, agreed upon with the Tareen committee, be implemented.
The Tareen-led committee had reportedly also agreed to empower two PML-Q ministers in Punjab and one at the Centre and the allied party’s leadership wanted to implement the earlier agreed upon decisions, which were recorded in minutes too.
However, the gulf between the partners widened after the prime minister stopped Tareen from holding talks with the PML-Q and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) reportedly on complaints from some PTI leaders that he was more inclined to protect the interest of the alienated partners than the government’s.
After the formation of the new committee, Elahi, who was spearheading the talks with the PTI, had expressed his strong resentment over the non-implementation of the agreement and had given a week’s deadline for its implementation. The PML-Q leader had also threatened that PML-Q could review its alliance with the government in case the commitment was not honoured.
