PML-Q asking for more time before 'final decision'

• PML-N's Ayaz Sadiq says PML-Q will let them know who they plan to support by evening today.
• Once PML-Q finalises its decision, PML-N and PML-Q will then sit down and work out a “long-term agreement” between the two.
• On Sunday, PML-Q leadership held meetings with PML-N and PPP. 

The main ally of the ruling party, the PML-Q, has asked the Opposition for some time to decide who they plan to support in the vote of no confidence against the prime minister, a senior leader of the PML-N said.

On Sunday, the PML-Q leadership held back-to-back meetings with the Opposition political parties, the PML-N and the PPP.

“It was a very good meeting,” Ayaz Sadiq, former speaker of the national assembly, and a senior leader of the PML-N, who was at the meeting, told Geo.tv.

Read more: PML-N to give CM Punjab slot to PML-Q, say sources

“They [PML-Q] have asked for some time,” he added, “By evening today they should let us know”, regarding who they plan to support — the government or the Opposition.

Once the PML-Q finalises its decision, Sadiq said that the PML-N and PML-Q will then sit down and work out a “long-term agreement” between the two.

Another politician from the Opposition, who asked not to be named, told Geo.tv that there is a realisation with the PML-Q as well that they will need the support of the PML-N in the next election to even win the four general national assembly seats that they have right now.

The politician added that while in 2002 PML-Q had bagged 118 national assembly constituencies, the party’s electoral success has been steadily declining since then, and was cut down to 54 seats in 2008 and only two in 2013.

“They [PML-Q] realise they need PML-N’s support to win in Punjab, that is why they have proposed a merger with the PML-N and/or an electoral alliance,” he added.

Read more: Opposition targets CM Punjab Usman Buzdar after PM Imran Khan

The other major ally of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf that the Opposition is trying to woo away from the government is the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

A member of the National Assembly from the Opposition, who asked to remain anonymous, said that while things were earlier settled with the MQM-P they kept increasing their demands in every meeting.

“Recently they asked for the post of governor in Sindh for the first time,” the MNA said.

When asked what the Opposition plans to do if the vote of no confidence succeeds against the prime minister, PML-N’s Sadiq said that the Opposition could then also move against the chairman senate, speaker and deputy speaker. “Maybe even impeachment against the president at a later stage,” he added.