Islamabad, Mar 3 (UNI) The Pakistan Peoples Party Patriots (PPP-P) have joined the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and formally merged their party with the PML.
The group with a strength of at least 10 federal and five provincial legislators, all from Punjab, had parted ways with Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) after 2002 parliamentary elections to join the government.
The National Assembly members announced the merger decision at a press conference in Islamabad and the provincial legislators at a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in Lahore, Dawn newspaper reported.
However, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, who is also one of the senior members of the PPP-P did not join the ruling PML apparently because of his own identity as one of the founding members of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and because of the close association with former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The Patriots headed by Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal, a close friend of President General Pervez Musharraf, decided to join the ruling party even without any clear assurance that they would get party tickets for the seats they had won in 2002 general election.
PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain did not accept the demand of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi, a senior PPP-P member, for an undertaking that they would be given party tickets for contesting from their old constituencies before the announcement of the merger decision.
He refused to offer any such assurance. Before the merger announcement, senior PML leaders and PPP Patriots MPs held a meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf at the latter's camp office in Rawalpindi.
According to the sources privy to the meeting, President Musharraf urged the Patriots to extend their support to the PML and brighten its chances to win the forthcoming elections.
UNI
The group with a strength of at least 10 federal and five provincial legislators, all from Punjab, had parted ways with Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) after 2002 parliamentary elections to join the government.
The National Assembly members announced the merger decision at a press conference in Islamabad and the provincial legislators at a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in Lahore, Dawn newspaper reported.
However, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, who is also one of the senior members of the PPP-P did not join the ruling PML apparently because of his own identity as one of the founding members of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and because of the close association with former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The Patriots headed by Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal, a close friend of President General Pervez Musharraf, decided to join the ruling party even without any clear assurance that they would get party tickets for the seats they had won in 2002 general election.
PML president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain did not accept the demand of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi, a senior PPP-P member, for an undertaking that they would be given party tickets for contesting from their old constituencies before the announcement of the merger decision.
He refused to offer any such assurance. Before the merger announcement, senior PML leaders and PPP Patriots MPs held a meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf at the latter's camp office in Rawalpindi.
According to the sources privy to the meeting, President Musharraf urged the Patriots to extend their support to the PML and brighten its chances to win the forthcoming elections.
UNI
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