Not parting ways with govt: MQM-P

From Zeeshan Mirza

LAHORE: A Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) delegation on Tuesday met Pakistan Muslim League Quaid (PML-Q) leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi with the latter saying that parting ways with the government was not on the agenda. “There was no such discussion on parting ways with the government,” said PML-Q leader and Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi while speaking to media alongside MQM-P leader Amir Khan after the meeting.
He said that both of them are part of the government and conveys their grievance to the government after prior discussion at the party level. “Today’s meeting was also aimed for a similar purpose,” he said. He further said that they wanted to take the opposition in Punjab into confidence over the local government bill and bring it as a consensus document before the assembly. Amir Khan while speaking to the media said that they visited Chaudhry Shujaat to inquire about his health besides this, political discussion was also part of the meeting.
“We are political people and carry out our political activities to facilitate people in our constituencies,” he said and added that joining government to facilitate constituents is the right of every party and MQM-P also reserves the same right.
Separately, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Tuesday said all the allied parties of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were fully intact with the government.
The PTI had full confidence and support of its allies, which would not leave its government, he said while talking to private news channels. The minister said the opposition was a group of corrupt people who had the common agenda of how to conceal or save the plundered public wealth, and they had gathered a day before yesterday for the purpose.
The corruption of opposition leadership had been caught and the accountability process against them was moving forward, he added.
He said both the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were continuing their proceedings against Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif for corruption and money laundering of billions of rupees.
Both the main opposition parties of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had lack of trust with each other, he added.
Farrukh said the government was not afraid of the opposition alliance as it was fully focused on its priority of serving the people. It was providing best health facilities to the people through health cards as it had evolved best policy against the coronavirus pandemic which was acknowledged internationally.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan would spearhead the PTI’s public contact campaign soon by addressing big public gatherings across the country to highlight the government’s performance and achievements.