Elahi urges govt not to treat allies like 'a second wife'

Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said the government should not consider coalition partners as their ‘second wife’, on Friday.

The statement comes after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on Thursday announced three committees to keep liason with its allies. 

The former Punjab chief minister was speaking to a Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) delegation. He urged the government to fulfill its promises to allies, saying that coalition partners "should not be treated like a second wife". 

He raised questions on the government's move to constitute new committees to keep liason with allies, wondering why the previous one was changed. Elahi said that when that committee was making progress with negotiations, it was changed. 

“The government should take into confidence its allies, and stand firm on the fact that we are together, out problems and losses are the same,” he said.

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“If the government suffers a loss, it will have a ripple effect and have the same impact on us,” he said.

Defence Minister Khattak will be the chairperson of all the new committees, a notification from the the Prime Minister's Office said on Thursday.

The committee tasked to liaise with MQM and GDA includes Asad Umar, Imran Ismail, Firdous Shamim Naqvi and Haleem Adil Sheikh as its members.

The committee to liaise with PML-Q includes Chaudhary Mohammad Sarwar, Sardar Usman Buzdar and Shafqat Mahmood.

Meanwhile, Pervaiz Khattak, Qasim Suri and Mir Khan Muhammad Jamali will liaise with BAP, BNP and JWP.