‘Distrust’ between PM Imran, Chaudhrys of Gujrat exists: report

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decision not to meet his allies the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on his visit to Lahore on Sunday has not gone well with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat despite their publicly voiced reservations regarding their senior coalition partner, reported The News.

“Courtesy demanded that the prime minister should have met the top leadership of his ally, the PML-Q when it had openly articulated its grievances and complaints,” sources in the party told The News.

However, PML-Q leader Chaudhry Moonis Elahi dismissed the reports and said that the Defence Minister Pervez Khattak and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) stalwart Jehangir Tareen were working with his party to implement the agreement they signed after the 2018 polls.

To a question, the insiders said, "when Imran Khan stated in Lahore that he knows who is hatching the conspiracy in Punjab, he did pinpoint towards the Chaudhrys."

Also read: PTI, PML-Q reconcile after successful talks

“It is an open secret that the PML-Q has not plotted to destabilise the Usman Buzdar government and has no plan to dislocate it,” said the PTI sources.

The insiders said the prime minister’s declaration that he was not bothered about any party’s support and would not be blackmailed by anyone was not new because he has been making it since he came to power. Its repetition in Lahore needs to be read in that context, the PTI sources said.

They said that both parties have started implementing the 2018 agreement but warned that the next two weeks were very important. The sources said that if the commitments made by the PTI to PML-Q were not fulfilled then the PTI-led government could be in trouble.

The insiders said that it would be clear within this timeline whether the ongoing realisation of the understating was real or fake.

Also read: Is the PTI government going through 'aftershocks' of the Azadi March?

“In case, the exercise proves to be lip service, Tareen and Khattak would become irrelevant as the game would slip out of their hands,” the sources told The News.

Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi had earlier stated that PM Imran should not view his allies with suspicion. He also asked the premier to confirm the news reports he receives before believing in them.

The speaker expressed his disappointment that his party made sure that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) sit-in ended peacefully, but instead of receiving encouragement their role was doubted.

Pervez Elahi also lamented that PM Imran did no inquire about PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain’s health after he returned from getting treatment in Germany. Even during his Lahore visit, he persisted with his old approach.