LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid senior leader Pervaiz Elahi has said former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf will continue shuttling between Pakistan and abroad.

“Where are those PML-N ministers who talked about stopping Musharraf from going abroad. Musharraf had pardoned those (Sharif brothers) who hijacked his plane but they got him booked under Article 6. What happened after that is before every one,” Pervaiz Elahi said, adding Mr Musharraf would continue traveling to and from Pakistan.

PML-N federal ministers Khwaja Asif and Ahsan Iqbal were vocal critics of former president and army chief. Mr Iqbal, some two years ago, had declared he would “quit ministry and politics” if Musharraf was allowed to leave the country.

Talking to reporters after a meeting to review PML-Q reorganisation at the Muslim League House here on Sunday, Mr Elahi said while the federal government’s package for farmers was devoured by patwaris, the farming community in Punjab would also get nothing from Shahbaz Sharif’s package.

He demanded that the government should be first held accountable for wasting Rs200 billion which could not reach the farmers.

Mr Elahi said the farmers were crying as their income from crops’ production was far less than their input cost.

“The rulers only pay lip service to farmers issues but they have not done anything practical to mitigate their concerns. The government has done nothing to facilitate them (farmers). It has failed to ensure brick-lining of water courses, and providing free livestock medicines and vaccination. Instead, it has withdrawn the tax exemption given to those owning twelve and a half acres or lesser land by the PML-Q government,” he said.

About reorganisation of the party, Mr Elahi said he had asked the committees concerned to expedite their work and complete it at the earliest. “No fake party membership will be done,” he pledged.

He said work on the party’s reorganisation in Lahore division had also begun formally, whereas under the leadership of Tariq Bashir Cheema and Ahmad Yar Hiraj this was in progress in Multan, Khanewal, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh and Bahawalnagar.

Chaudhry Zaheeruddin Khan and Muhammad Basharat Raja are busy in the reorganisation of the party in Rawalpindi, Chakwal, Attock, Jhelum and Faisalabad, respectively, while Bao Rizwan and Dr Azeemuddin Zahid Lakhvi are doing the same in Kasur, Sialkot, Narowal and Nankana Sahib districts.

The former deputy prime minister said after completion of reorganisation work the party conventions would be held at the division level throughout the province. He said the lawyers, ulema, labourers, doctors, minorities, youth, and traders wings as well as MSF organisers were also busy in the PML-Q reorganisation.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2016