Efforts to bring Musharraf as alternate leader will fail, says minister

LAHORE: Reacting to former dictator Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf forming a 23-party alliance under his command, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said on Saturday that efforts to bring ‘the usurper’ as an alternate leader will fall through.  

“Efforts to bring usurper Pervez Musharraf as an alternate leader will miserably fail. This practice of breaking and forming political parties will have to be done away with,” he said in a tweet.

A day earlier, the former military ruler announced the formation of a 23-party alliance under the umbrella of Pakistan Awami Ittehad.

Addressing the members of the new alliance from Dubai via telephone, Musharraf had hinted that the two major urban parties – Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan and Pak Sarzameen Party – might join the alliance, lending credence to speculations that some kind of alliance under his command is in the making.

In another tweet, the Minister said that decision about national politics will be taken in streets and markets. “The PSP and MQM alliance, an engineered alliance, failed within 24 hours,” he added.

Rafique further said that plots to defame and clamp restrictions on the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) leadership through cases will also fail.Commenting on the NAB appeal seeking reopening of Hudaibya Paper Mills case against the Sharif family, he said opening cases closed as a result of a court decision was injustice.