Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has openly accepted that he opposed the PTI-backed candidature of his cousin, Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi because he cannot lend his support to "anyone who criticized state institutions".
Taking to Twitter, Chaudhry Shujaat wrote "I cannot support anyone criticizing state institutions because he [Shujaat] has cordial relations with the institutions for the past three decades. The state institutions guarantee stability in Pakistan."
He further clarified that while Elahi would remain his candidate for the office of Chief Minister, he (Shujaat) could not allow him to become "the nominee of PTI", Dawn reported.
However, Parvez Elahi's son, Moonis, claimed that Chaudhry Shujaat was under "immense pressure" and he politely refused to support Parvez Elahi as a candidate for Imran Khan, adding that Hussain wanted Elahi to become the chief minister, but not as a candidate of Imran Khan.
Moonis also said that he had gone to see Shujaat Hussain and asked whether he had written the letter to which he replied that he did.
"I have instructed the PML-Q MPAs not to vote anyone in the chief minister's election being held in Punjab Assembly," he quoted Chaudhry Shujaat as saying.
In his tweets, Shujaat Hussain suggested that all political leaders should subordinate their personal interests to national interests so that Pakistan can come out of the crisis.
Otherwise, the country would further be "divided into ideologies" and become "prey in the hands of people working for their vested interests", he said, adding that the country was already facing a critical situation in terms of economy as well as politics.
Referring to confrontation within the house of Chaudhrys of Gujrat, Shujaat Hussain said political conflict should not be confused with personal disagreement and stressed that all should stop politics of confrontation and work for the betterment of the country and its security and well-being, Dawn reported.
"Anyone who gets a chance to rule, should contact political opponents and jointly work for the security and stability of the country," the PML-Q president concluded as saying.
Notably, the PML-Q leader had a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday to discuss the political situation after the Chief Minister's election.
According to Dawn, the late-night meeting had probably become the deciding factor that Hamza Shehbaz should not take oath as CM during midnight hours and do so in the morning.
This is the second time that Hamza defeated Elahi in the contest for the post of Punjab CM. Back in April, his oath-taking had been delayed for days with then then-governor, Omar Sarfaraz Cheema, refusing to administer the oath to him.
Earlier, PML-N's Shahbaz was re-elected as the chief minister of Punjab after the votes of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) were rejected by the Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker.
On Friday, Pervaiz Elahi, a joint candidate of PTI and PML-Q received 186 votes, while Hamza Shahbaz got 179 votes. However, 10 votes of PML-Q were cancelled by Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari, hence taking the figure to 176.
( With inputs from ANI )
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