Unification bloc members issued show-cause notices

Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Zaheeruddin has on Wednesday issued show cause notices to those 15 members of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) who were elected on PML ticket in 2008 polls with "bicycle" as their election symbol but showed disloyalty to the party by corroborating with the party in power in Punjab by forming what he called an unconstitutional and illegal bloc.
After sending the show cause notices, the next step will be filing of references against the turncoats` with the Election Commission of Pakistan, a leader of PML said here on Wednesday. Show cause notices sent to 15 party renegades points out that these members had been awarded the Pakistan Muslim League tickets by the President of the Punjab Muslim League Chaudhry Parvez Elahi on their formal requests and that they had violated the sanctum of this trust by opting to sit in the treasury benches under the garb of a so-called unification bloc, which was not registered with the ECP, while their original party was the only opposition party in the house ie PML.
The show cause notices further states that these particular members, against party decision had been meeting the chief minister for inclusion in the cabinet and were on record as saying that their induction in the cabinet was not going to make any difference.
The show cause notices also cite various public announcements where the notified MPAs had openly declared to give the chief minister their vote of confidence. Furthermore in the show cause notices, the 15 party renegades have been asked to explain as to how they can request the speaker to nominate one of them as the parliamentary leader and the opposition leader when according to the law the sole authority in this regard is the president of the party.
The show cause notices pointing out the non-sincere and selfish motivations of these turncoats give them three days for replying to the charges. It clearly states that in case of non compliance the assumption would be that they had accepted the charges levelled against them whereby the party will have no choice but to file their disqualification references with the Election Commission of Pakistan through the speaker of the assembly while the speaker was constitutionally bound to forward these references to the ECP with in two days of their receipt.
Political analysts believe that political temperature in the country particularly in Punjab is all set to increase with almost certain expulsion of PPP Ministers from Punjab Cabinet by the Chief Minister. According to them, a strong opposition will emerge with the end of alliance between PML-N and PPP in Punjab.