Javed Hashmi, senior vice president of PML-N, is facing strong opposition in his own party which strongly reacted when Nawaz Sharif appointed him acting chief of his Muslim League in his absence. This lobby managed to get his name dropped from the presidential election and now his name was dropped from the leader of opposition.
A strong group of upper Punjab is continuously opposing the Muslim Leaguers of southern Punjab like Zulfikar Ali Khosa and Javed Hashmi while the fact is that workers and leaders of southern Punjab rendered precious sacrifices for the cause of the party.
Javed himself served six years in prison but kept the party alive, active and effective. Now Nawaz, under pressure of Zafar-ul-Haq, Ahsan Iqbal and their group nominated Nisar Ali as leader of the opposition, instead of Javed who belongs to a backward area of the country. However Javed denied any infighting in his party and said "we say Aameen to leadership's decision and we are binding to abide by the orders/ins-tructions/decision of the leadership.
He said on Monday that PML-N enjoys majority in the Punjab Assembly without seeking support of Pakistan People's Party. "But some elements in PPP are trying to create mistrust, and they should be taken to task by the party leadership", he said.
He said that PML-N was still avoiding paying in the same coin "but it should not be considered our weakness." He said it was mandatory on both political parties to pay due respect to the Charter of Democracy. He said all political parties have important roles to play in the success of democracy. He said PPP was in a position to reinstate all deposed judges to resolve the judicial crisis. He hoped that Iftikhar Chaudhry would be sworn in as chief justice of Pakistan soon.
He was all for repealing the 17th Amendment and abiding by the Charter of Democracy. He was satisfied with the holding of presidential election in a smooth manner. The PML-N leader expressed strong dismay over the language used by Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer at the Governor House on Saturday evening.
Mehmood-ul-Hassan, Shahid Mehmood Khan, Abdul Waheed Arain, Amer Saeed Ansari in a joint statement on Monday strongly reacted to the language used by Salmaan Taseer and said he was a political orphan. "The PML-N government was not formed with the help of Salmaan Taseer nor would it collapse if he so desired. Taseer should understand that PML-N enjoys majority in Punjab Assembly. Sharif brothers live in the hearts of the nation and their popularity is not limited like that of the Governor," they said.
They asked Salmaan to leave the Governor House and come out in the open field if he was keen to take part in politics. They said the PML-N believed in politics of principles and the statements of the Governor would not damage the morale of the workers. "Those issuing baseless statements should know that Punjab is the stronghold of PML-N. Conspiracy to destabilise government in Punjab will not be successful," PML-N leaders said, adding that the PML-N decision to sit on the Opposition benches in the Centre had been welcomed by people. They strongly criticised the statement of Punjab Governor in which he had said that if PPP would quit the cabinet, the government would fall at once.