PML Q removes Shujat, Cheema from party positions
A few days after Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as the party president wrote a letter to PML-Q legislators in Punjab not to vote for his cousin, Parvez Elahi, in last week's chief minister’s election, the PML-Q central working committee on Thursday removed Shujaat and federal minister Tariq Bashir Cheema from their party positions.
The committee stated that the PML-Q chief was unable to make “prudent” decisions due to his poor health and he conspired against the party and used it to serve his interests.
The PML-Q committee meeting, chaired by Senator Kamil Ali Agha, decided to hold fresh elections for top slots within 10 days. It formed a five-member election commission and appointed the acting president of the party’s lawyers’ wing, Jahangir A Jhoja, as election commissioner. Mr. Jhoja will also supervise the organization and administration of the party until the intra-party vote.
Referring to Chaudhry Shujaat’s letter asking the MPA of the party to vote for Hamza Shehbaz of the PML-N, Senator Agha told the media after the meeting that all the boundaries were crossed in order to harm the party. “Is it justified to keep Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as president of the party and Tariq Bashir Cheema as secretary general?” he asked. “If the episode of the letter can come, it can also come.”
The senator added that the meeting of the party’s central working committee was convened after two-thirds of its members expressed concern that Shujaat’s ill health was affecting the party.
The members of the committee had previously asked the secretary-general to convene the meeting of the CWC and on his refusal, I was asked to refer to this as a senior member of the party,’ explained Mr. Agha.