Qureshi could spill the beans in LHC

By Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: Former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will run into further trouble in the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) if he appeared before the Lahore High Court (LHC) on being summoned and told it that Raymond Davis couldn't be given diplomatic immunity as he was not a diplomat as per the foreign office record.

Senior PPP sources say Qureshi's position in the party has been severely dented and as the situation develops he is unlikely to fully rehabilitate himself, enjoying its absolute confidence.

His declaration, personally or through his lawyer, before the LHC after being called, if a petition filed on Tuesday is accepted, will prove to be the last straw that will break the camel's back, one PPP leader commented to The News.

However, those knowing Qureshi have no doubt that he would not deviate before the LHC froam his stance that he has taken publicly on Davis's immunity because he has based it on the record of the foreign ministry and the advice given to him by its top mandarins.

A PPP source said that the demonstrations being staged in Multan, condemning Qureshi's ouster, were not being received well by the co-chairman, President Asif Ali Zardari. He did not agree that these were spontaneous and reflected the anger of his followers that the former foreign minister has in his area.

He said that such protests were inconsequential because they would not change the ground situation. Rather these are spawning bitterness in the party against him, he said.

While Qureshi's woes are raging in the PPP, his old party, Pakistan Muslim League-N will be more than happy to welcome him as he, in the words of one of its senior leaders, left it without damaging, slandering or defaming it publicly. "He never created any controversy or made his exit from the PML-N an issue. He departed us quietly after lodging his protest."

The PML-N leader said that the party would take care of the reservations, if any, to be expressed by its senior stalwart Javed Hashmi should Qureshi decide to re-join it. It is no secret that the PML-N high command is unhappy with Hashmi's "conduct" especially his high flying statements with recent demanding across the board that all politicians including Nawaz Sharif should bring their foreign wealth back to Pakistan. That's why it has not been given him any top position like the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly or the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.

Setting a new record, Hashmi won three out of four National Assembly seats he contested in the 2008 general elections. The only one that he lost was one of the two Multan seats at the hands of Qureshi. Hashmi won in Lahore and Rawalpindi and a Multan seat. Qureshi's acquaintances say he doesn't have the habit or temperament to cling to a political position if it is unpalatable for him for some time. "He would not become like some other PPP stalwarts, who have been persistently ignored and even belittled by the top leadership for speaking against party policies," one of them said.

In this connection, he mentioned the names of Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Naheed Khan, Senator Safdar Abbasi, Nawab Yusuf Talpur and Dr Israr Shah (who has finally been expelled from the party).

The source said that Qureshi knows well in view of the president's track record that once he was annoyed with some of his party leaders for even slight defiance, he would never adjust or accommodate them in any important party or government office.

He said that Qureshi was deeply hurt over the harsh reactions and allegations hurled over him by some mouthpieces of the presidency at the behest of Zardari. He said that the party's belated order to them not to issue statements against the former foreign minister was just eyewash after they had bitterly condemned him.