Cracks appear in PML-N as 15 Punjab lawmakers defy party policy

LAHORE: As many as 15 lawmakers of the Punjab Assembly hailing from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday decided to go against the party directives to refrain from meeting Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar and announced to improve relations with government functionaries in the province, ARY NEWS reported.

“We are only accountable to the people of our constituency,” said the 15 provincial lawmakers who announced to defy the party directives during a meeting in Lahore after they were issued show-cause notices over meeting the chief minister.

“Meeting chief minister of the province is not a crime that show-cause notices were issued to us,” they said and announced that they should not be held accountable for the crimes committed by the party leadership.

We will not hesitate to go to anyone for the betterment of our constituencies, they said and urged the party leadership to refrain from imposing restrictions that are against the public interest.

The lawmakers who met at a farmhouse in the provincial capital included Mian Jaleel Ahmed, Nishat Khan Daha, Muhammad Ghiyas-ud-Din and others.

They claimed that more lawmakers are joining their ranks to raise voice against the party policy as it emerged that 10 more PML-N lawmakers expressed solidarity with the estranged lawmakers over the telephone.

It is pertinent to mention here that in another such meeting on March 12, three estranged lawmakers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) met with the Governor Punjab Chaudhry Sarwar.

The lawmakers Nishat Daha, Azhar Abbas Chandia and Chaudhry Faisal Niazi met with the governor Punjab where both the sides discussed the ongoing political developments and other issues of mutual interests.