While each party tries to elbow the other out, PML-N continues to face internal discord. Its lawmakers fight to become the party’s parliamentary leader in the provincial assembly.
Sources revealed rifts inside the PML-N’s provincial chapter appeared as its lawmaker from Mansehra, Wajihuz Zaman Khan, is not ready to accept Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha as the party’s parliamentary leader or opposition leader in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
The issue has become so serious that Governor Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi had to intervene but failed to settle the matter between the warring lawmakers during a meeting on Wednesday.
Nalotha told The Express Tribune it was decided at a recent meeting, attended by the party’s provincial president Pir Sabir Shah, to make him the party’s parliamentary leader as well as a candidate for the opposition leader in the assembly.
According to Nalotha, the PML-N will also try to get the opposition on their side in the next few days.
‘Far from decided’
A PML-N leader requesting anonymity said the issue was far from decided and has been left to the party’s central leadership. Another lawmaker told The Express Tribune that infighting within the party had delayed the appointment as Zaman claims he is “more deserving as he has been winning every election since 1997”.
Reports emerged on Thursday that JUI-F lawmakers submitted an application in the assembly calling for its parliamentary leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman’s appointment as the opposition leader.
However, a JUI-F lawmaker requesting anonymity denied the report but said parliamentary leaders of the Awami National Party and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) had promised to support them for a JUI-F member’s appointment as the opposition leader and will meet to discuss the issue soon.
He said the PML-N had earlier asked them to wait but after the governor’s inconclusive meeting on Wednesday the party has again asked the opposition to wait for another few days, however, “it seems their problems are far from being sorted soon”.
Presently, JUI-F has 17 members and is the largest of the opposition parties, while PML-N has 15. In addition, QWP has 10, and Pakistan Peoples Party and ANP five each. Previously, PML-N had 17 MPAs and thus claimed the opposition leader’s slot but Abbasi’s appointment as the governor and disqualification of MPA Qaymos Khan reduced its strength in the house.
Source/Fuente: http://tribune.com.pk/story/699870/despite-fewer-members-pml-n-jostles-f...
