LAHORE, March 20: Following suspension of seat adjustment talks with the PPP, the PML-Q leadership has decided to award party tickets without taking into account the reaction of its former coalition partner.

Relations between the two parties turned sour after the PPP leadership allegedly tried to lure Q’s potential candidates like Ahmed Yar Hiraj, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Tariq Bashir Cheema, Anwar Cheema and Mushtaq Cheema. Defection of a former ‘Q’ minister, Sardar Bahadur Sehar, to the People’s Party proved breaking point that resulted in suspension of seat-adjustment talks between the two sides.

Earlier, the both parties had finalised joint candidates for the National Assembly seats in all districts of Punjab and those of the Punjab Assembly in 10 or so districts. They still have to resolve the issue of disputed seats from where the main leaders of the both parties are interested in contesting the election. “Our parliamentary board is meeting on coming Tuesday and it will start awarding tickets to candidates without considering any seat adjustment with the PPP,” PML-Q central information secretary Senator Kamil Ali Agha told Dawn on Wedesnday.

“The ball is now in the PPP’s court. We have our exit strategy if our reservations are not addressed,” Mr Agha made it clear.

On the other hand, a PPP Punjab leader informed Dawn that President Asif Ali Zardari did not want to lose the Q support at this stage.

“The president is of the view that if his relations with the Chaudhrys deteriorated they may not be revived after May 11 polls,” the PPP leader said.

“You can never predict the result of general elections. The PPP does not want to see the Sharifs rule Punjab again and for this it cannot afford to lose the Q,” he said, adding President Zardari was likely to hold a meeting with Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in a day or two to redress their grievances.

“There are chances that PPP may ask Sardar Bahadur Sehar to return to the PML-Q to normalise relations with it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the PML-Q is also weighing its option to field candidates without entering an alliance with the PPP in Punjab. “We are considering fielding our candidates after making adjustments with other parties (except PML-N) at local level,” a senior PML-Q leader said.

The deteriorating relations have provided an opportunity to the ‘anti-PPP group’ in the PML-Q to convince the Chaudhrys to come out of the alliance forthwith as this is the right time to make the decision.

Even in Gujrat the Q workers are not   happy with their party’s alliance with the PPP. “We have been arch rivals since long and we are not ready to accept PPP as a friend,” says a PML activist from Gujrat.

PPP stalwart Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has already announced contesting election against Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi from NA-105 Gujrat, claiming the backing of the party leadership.