A crucial meeting between Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain and Asif Ali Zardari ended inconclusive on Wednesday as the latter advised the former to meet Shehbaz Sharif for any possible future cooperation in wake of recent no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The Chaudhary cousins – Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi – had turned down an invitation by Shehbaz Sharif during his visit to Shujaat residence, saying “PML-Q was not seeing unity in the ranks of all opposition parties”.

The wheelchair-bound party president, Shujaat, who travelled all the way from Lahore to Islamabad on Tuesday to muster support for Pervaiz Elahi, but had to leave empty handed as Zardari said “it’s too late as your [Chaudhry cousins] reluctance to meet Shehbaz Sharif was against the political etiquette”.

The sources also said that Shujaat also got a similar response from Maulana Fazlur Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) –shattering the hopes of Chaudhary cousins to rule Punjab once again with an iron fist like they did during Gen Musharraf’s regime.

According to sources, Shujaat kept requesting Zardari, saying: “I’m the eldest in the family due to which I’ve come myself…let’s bury the hatchet and proceed as planned”.

But, Zardari insisted that “it is too late as they [the opposition has] started working on a different plan when you refused to meet Shehbaz Sharif”. However, the PPP co-chairman advised Shujaat to meet Shehbaz Sharif to settle the issue, after which he rushed back to Lahore as the latter had also departed for the provincial capital.

The PML-Q with five members in the National Assembly and 10 seats in the Punjab provincial assembly was considering itself to be on the driving seat, but following estranged PTI leader Aleem Khan announced joining the Jahangir Tareen’s group, insiders said that the development has weakened position of the Q league in the numbers’ game. This compelled the PML-Q president, his son Chaudhry Salik Hussain and a close confidant Tariq Bashir Cheema, who is also a federal minister in Prime Minister Imran Khan cabinet, to rush to Islamabad for holding meetings with opposition leadership who was previously only receiving the opposition leaders at his Lahore residence.

However, sources privy to the development said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who is president of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) as well as chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), has clearly conveyed to the PML-Q leadership that “it was now too late.”

Accompanied by Chaudhry Salik Hussain and Federal Housing Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema, Chaudhry Shujaat, Tuesday, had held a meeting with Maulana at his residence in which, according to informed sources, the Q league sought the opposition’s support for Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi for the slot of chief minister Punjab in return of its vote for the no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The PTI disgruntled group is claiming to have around 10 members in the National Assembly but the number might increase and several other members such as Noor Alam Khan from Peshawar can possibly vote for the opposition who had been very critical of the poor performance of the government.

On the other hand, the sources said that the PML-Q leadership has also conveyed to Prime Minister Khan that their party would not be able to support him in voting on the no-confidence motion in case his own party members from 10 to 15 are supposed to vote for the opposition.

“During the talks, both with the PTI and the opposition, the PML-Q is advocating for Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to be the next chief minister Punjab,” a PML-Q insider said.

This story was first published in Business Recorder on March 10, 2022.