KARACHI, 12 November — The breakaway faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, calling itself as the like-minded group, has intensified campaign for support from the military, and has been presenting itself as an alternative to PML-N and the PPP to fill the political vacuum created by absence of two of the country’s main political figures. Sources here said that two of main leaders from the like-minded group, Ejazul Haq, and former Interior Minister Chaudhry Shujaat spent two days in Karachi during the weekend to muster support for their party in Sindh province.
The group has been weakened in Sindh because of an in-fight between its principal leaders, like Haleem Siddiqi, and former Sindh minister Ghouse Bux Mehar. Yet another main pillar of the group, which is also known as the PML (Quaid-e-Azam), Maqbool Sheikh, has separated from them, and with the help of his brother, Imtiaz Sheikh, a former civil servant, has floated a new Sindh Democratic Alliance.
It comprises elements who are mostly from splinter groups, and former members of the Sindh Assembly, winning elections as independents, and then aligning themselves with the party in power to wield some kind of influence in their respective areas. The visit to Karachi Ejaz and Shujaat seemed to have been prompted by a statement from Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto will not be arrested if she chose to return home from exile.
They told newsmen at a dinner hosted by Maqbool Sheikh on Saturday night that the government will have to pursue a legal course, and cannot exempt anyone from restrictions imposed by the law of the land. Their statement showed that they seemed perturbed by the prospects of Benazir’s return to Pakistan.
