Lahore: PML-Q, the new coalition partner of
Pakistan's ruling PPP, has complained to President Asif Ali
Zardari that Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani is not releasing funds
for its constituencies in line with a power-sharing agreement.
PML-Q spokesman Kamil Ali Agha said that the PPP and
his party had agreed that besides the routine development
funds, the PML-Q would get "special" allocations from the
Prime Minister's discretionary fund but not a penny had been
released so far.
A total of 14 PML-Q federal ministers and ministers of
state had been included in the government led by the PPP in
the first week of May after PPP chief Zardari and PML-Q head
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain agreed on a power-sharing formula.
Prime Minister Gilani was not included in the talks
between the two parties and he was reportedly not in favour of
an alliance with the PML-Q.
"After joining the PPP-led coalition at the centre, the
people of our constituencies expect us to do development works
and provide jobs to our workers," Agha said.
The PML-Q's legislators, especially in Punjab province,
were getting frustrated as they were only pinning hope on the
Prime Minister's special grant.
"The PML-Q parliamentarians are somehow sitting pretty as
they get funds from the Prime Minister's routine annual
grant," Agha said.
He expressed the hope that the matter would be resolved
now that it had been brought to the notice of the President.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, June 26, 2011, 14:28