Five PML-Q MPAs form forward bloc

Five Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam MPAs-elect have said that they will establish a forward bloc in Punjab Assembly to back the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s policies in the province.
MPAs-elect Sultan Bharwana from PP-76 (Jhang), Khalid Pervaiz Virk from PP-101 (Gujranwala), Irfan Bashir Gujjar from PP-102 (Gujranwala), Abbas Chaudhry from PP-134 (Narowal) and Shujaat Ahmad Khan from PP-136 (Narowal) told reporters on Saturday at a joint press conference that their bloc would also back the public mandate given to the PML-N and the PPPP.
They said that while respecting the public mandate the PPPP have a right to form its government in Centre while PML-N enjoyed this right in the Punjab. Although, the voters of their constituencies reposed confidence by electing them in the elections but it was their moral and constitutional duty to support the PML-N which obtained majority from Punjab. Abbas said that they were enjoying the support of 40 MPAs-elect in the PML-Q in Punjab and they will show all members of forward bloc at appropriate time. At present no one is heading the forward bloc but after talking oath as members of the house they would elect their own parliamentary leader in the house, he added.
He said for the stability of PML-N government in Punjab “we have decided to form a forward bloc” so that the coming Punjab chief minister could implement its policies with the support of majority. “We will also work for the restoration of true democratic norms in the province so that the elected government could complete its tenure like the previous government of PML-Q.
About a meeting between the bloc members with Nawaz and Shahbaz, Shujaat said they were not going to join the PML-N but they would support its government. With the formation of forward bloc the defection clause of the constitution did not apply on them, he said. In previous tenure the PPPP legislators had formed the forward bloc in the National and Punjab Assemblies and that they would toe the same line.