LAHORE, Feb 18: Ministers belonging to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) say that it will be a disaster for the PML-N if it joins hands with new “commercial partners” of the PML-Q's Unification Bloc.

The PPP is a junior coalition partner in the Punjab government spearheaded by chief minister Shahbaz Sharif of the PML-N after the 2008 general elections and there have been peaks and troughs in the three-year life of the alliance. The allocation of separate seats to the 47-strong Unification Bloc is being seen as yet another blow to the fragile political union by the senior partner.

“The PML-N leadership must learn from past experiences and should not start the politics of horse-trading,” Punjab PPP parliamentary leader Raja Riaz, who is also senior minister in the Punjab cabinet, said while talking to reporters here on Friday.

Responding to the statement of law minister Rana Sanaullah that if the PML-N's 10-point agenda was not implemented by Feb 23, it would part ways with the PPP in Punjab, Riaz said the PPP leadership had directed them to wait until the PML-N took the final decision on the pretext of its 10-point agenda in Punjab.

“We will welcome the PML-N's decision of parting ways with us. Rather, we will offer thanksgiving prayers at Data Darbar mosque,” he said.

The senior minister said PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif should respect the provisions of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) and 18th Constitutional Amendment and not promote the politics of horse-trading. “People have not yet forgotten about Changa Manga style of politics introduced by the Sharif brothers,” Riaz added.

Since the Unification Bloc, a 47-member group of PML-Q dissidents, has been accepted as an entity by Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal by allocating them separate seats, both the PML-N and the bloc leaders started announcing that the new alliance in Punjab was now a matter of days. The PML-Q has already announced challenging the speaker's decision in the court.

Another PPP minister Ashraf Sohna asked the Sharif brothers whether they had forgotten that the turncoats were “protégés of Gen Musharraf”.