Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and a splinter group which calls itself PML Like-minded (PML-LM) on Saturday formally signed an agreement for an electoral alliance in the general elections. Under the agreement, both parties agreed on a seat adjustment formula. The two parties will also make joint efforts for ensuring rule of law and independence of judiciary.
Leaderships of the two parties also expressed concern over the country's situation and called for forging unity to save the country. Humayun Akhtar of the PML Like-minded and PML_N's Iqbal Zafar Jhagra signed the agreement after leaders of the two parties met at the Raiwind residence of Nawaz Sharif.
After the agreement signing ceremony, Mian Atta Manika, the president of PML Like-minded, announced to quit party office in protest against the alliance. "I have not been taken into confidence over the seat adjustment alliance with the PML-N," Manika said. He also announced to contest next elections as an independent candidate from Pakpattan. A 20-member delegation of PML-LM met Nawaz Sharif at his residence in Raiwand. The delegation included Humayun Akhtar Khan, Gohar Ayub Khan, Salim Saifullah Khan, Hamid Nasir Chattha and Haroon Akhtar Khan. PML-N leaders Shahbaz Sharif, Sardar Mehtab Abbasi, Zafar Iqbal Jhagra, Senators Pervaiz Ashraf, Ishaq Dar, Khwaja Mohammad Asif and Zulfiqar Khosa assisted Nawaz Sharif during the talks.
During the meeting, sources claimed, leaderships of both parties exchanged views on the current political and economic situation and called for making joint efforts to get rid of the rulers, who were "posing threat to key national institutions". After the meeting, Humayun Akhtar Khan told reporters that under the agreement, as many as 30 seats would be adjusted with PML-N in the next elections. He said: "There was unanimity of views among the leadership of two parties that a united vote bank of the Muslim League is the only hope to overcome the country's crises." He said that both parties stressed on the need for focusing on the future, setting aside past.
The PML-N Secretary General Iqbal Zafar Jhaggra told reporters that both parties expressed concern over the domestic situation, especially in Karachi, Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. PML-N is also learnt to have contacted Jamaat-i-Islami, inviting it to join its anti-government movement.
Jhaggra said that the PML-N invited all patriotic forces of the country to join hands with his party in its "just struggle against the corrupt rulers". Moreover, the PML-N also geared up its efforts for soliciting the support of other political parties for its anti-government movement. PML-N Chairman Raja Zafrul Haq called on JI Ameer Syed Munawwar Hassan to discuss the PML-N's current movement against Pakistan People's Party-led coalition government and convicted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
The PML-N leader is said to have delivered a message of Nawaz Sharif to JI Chief Munawar Hassan, who, in response, said that if Nawaz Sharif was serious in running a "genuine anti-government movement, PML-N lawmakers must first quit leave assemblies".