Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. – File Photo

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE, July 7: The meeting on Wednesday between PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has provided an opportunity for the PPP leadership to put a seal on Mr Qureshi’s political career in the party after the PPP chapter of Punjab called for action against him for “violating discipline”.

But Mr Qureshi thinks he has “committed no crime by meeting the head of a major political party and that too in the light of the reconciliation policy initiated by the party’s chairperson late Benazir Bhutto and which is also being pursued by the present party leadership”.

Sources in the PPP told Dawn that the party leadership, which had been angry over Mr Qureshi’s activities for the past five months, was seriously considering the option of seeking an explanation from him not only for his meeting with Mr Sharif but also for his public criticism of policies of the government and the party.

At a meeting in Lahore on Thursday, PPP’s Punjab parliamentarians adopted a unanimous resolution calling for an immediate suspension of the basic membership of Mr Qureshi for meeting the PML-N chief without the leadership’s permission.

The meeting at the Punjab Assembly cafeteria, presided over by leader of the opposition in the provincial assembly Raja Riaz, was attended by only 28 of the 108 party lawmakers.

The resolution asked PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari to take disciplinary action against Mr Qureshi by suspending his basic party membership.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Raja Riaz accused the former foreign minister of playing to the hands of PPP opponents and reminded him of the fate of Ghulam Mustafa Khar and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi who had left the party after the death of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and failed to find a place in mainstream politics. “He (Mr Qureshi) should remember that those who left the party found no future in politics,” Mr Riaz said.

The PPP leader was also critical of Mr Qureshi for his opposition to the PPP-PML-Q alliance and alleged that it was Mr Qureshi who had suggested to the party leadership three years ago to enter into an alliance with the Q-League only because he wanted to become the chief minister.