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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAHORE 000132 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  7/10/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PK
SUBJECT: PAKISTAN MUSLIM LEAGUE ELECTIONS SHOW PARTY IS ADRIFT 
 
REF: Lahore 82 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Matthew Lowe, Acting Principal Officer, Consulate 
Lahore, U.S. Department of State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
¶1. (C) Summary: Although the July 8 provincial party elections 
of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML; also known as the "Q 
League") strengthened the Chaudhry family control over the PML, 
a prominent faction of dissidents who boycott the PML polls 
could could damage the national standing of the PML in the long 
run.  Humayun Akhtar Khan, who has led the opposition to the 
Chaudhrys, explained that the Chaudhrys broke party rules, and 
as a result Akhtar Khan will form his own Pakistan Muslim League 
by the end of July.  Although PML President Chaudhry Pervaiz 
Elahi told Principal Officer that former president Musharraf had 
instigated the split, Akhtar Khan denied that Musharraf had 
influence over the breakaway group.  End Summary. 
 
- - - 
Faction Boycotts PML Elections 
- - - 
 
¶2. (C) In the run-up to the July 8 provincial elections of the 
Pakistan Muslim League (PML; also known as the "Q League"), a 
faction led by former Speaker of the National Assembly Hamid 
Nasar Chattha and former Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan 
announced a boycott because, Chattha told the media July 6, the 
Chaudhry family has committed "gross violation of party rules." 
He complained that PML leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, 
Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Moonis Elahi have neglected to take 
other party members into confidence and put their family 
concerns over party concerns.  Prominent politicians Saleem Saif 
Ullah, Humayun Akhtar Khan and Dr. Tahir Ali Javed joined the 
press conference at Akhtar Khan's Lahore residence. 
 
- - - 
Pervaiz Elahi Nonplussed 
- - - 
 
¶3. (C) In a July 7 meeting with Principal Officer, Pervaiz Elahi 
dismissed the dissenters as insignificant.  "What support do 
they have?  They lack any grassroots support," he argued.  He 
contended that Akhtar Khan had acted at the behest of former 
president and current London resident Pervaiz Musharraf, who he 
said is "playing games."  "[Musharraf] wants a leadership role 
in the party," Elahi claimed, "but the party does not want him 
back." 
 
- - - 
Chaudhrys Win Big 
- - - 
 
¶4. (C) Despite the boycott, a large majority of each province's 
General Council, the members of which participate in the party 
elections, supported the Chaudhry-backed provincial presidents, 
who ran unopposed.  Pervaiz Elahi won in Punjab with 93 percent 
of the General Council votes; Ghous Bux Mahar in Sindh with 93 
percent; Amir Muqam in the Northwest Frontier Province with 90 
percent; and Jam Mohammad Yousaf in Baluchistan with 93 percent. 
 Although Akhtar Khan dismissed the election to the press as 
proof that the party relies solely on Gujrat district in Punjab, 
Chaudhry backers disputed the claim.  Former Punjab Minister of 
Education Imran Masood, who comes from Gujrat, and former 
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bhaktiar, 
who comes from Rahim Yar Khan, told poloff in separate July 9 
telcons that 40-50 representatives from each district in Punjab 
appeared at the election.  Masood related that so many voters 
crowded the Chaudhry Lahore residence that he sat outside and 
got sunstroke. 
 
- - - 
PML To Focus on Opposing PPP and PML-N 
- - - 
 
¶5. (C) After conducting national elections on July 20, Pervaiz 
Elahi outlined to PO, the PML will reassert its role as the 
opposition party.  He listed loadshedding (electricity outages), 
petrol prices, governance and economic distress as the main 
issues that the party will use to attack the Punjab government, 
where it leads the opposition in the provincial assembly, and 
the National Assembly, where it sits uneasily with the Pakistan 
Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the opposition.  He also 
downplayed the PML's support for a separate South Punjab 
province, which several PML politicians have promoted.  "It will 
get us votes now, but it is very impractical and will cause many 
problems in the country," he admitted. 
 
- - - 
 
LAHORE 00000132  002 OF 002 
 
 
Will the Real PML Please Stand Up? 
- - - 
 
¶6. (C) But the Chaudhry family will continue to face a competing 
PML faction.  In a July 9 meeting with poloff, Akhtar Khan said 
that he would petition the Federal Election Commission to allow 
him to hold PML elections again because the Chaudhrys violated 
the procedures stipulated in the 2002 party constitution.  "We 
will form the real PML," he stated.  After the Chaudhry-led PML 
holds its national elections, Akhtar Khan noted, he will 
announce "the real" PML party, with Chattha as Chairman, former 
Petroleum and Natural Resources Chairman Salim Saifullah as 
Secretary General, and former Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri 
(who skipped the PML elections while vacationing in London) as 
head of a policy planning body.  The leaders of the PML 
unification bloc (also known as the "forward bloc"), which has 
supported the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the Punjab 
provincial assembly, has also joined Akhtar Khan's side, he 
clarified.  He disclosed that he had recently held a "quiet" 
dinner in Islamabad, where 27 Members of the National Assembly 
(MNAs) appeared, though he realized that he could not count on 
all of them to join his PML.  In any case, he surmised, his side 
will have far more former ministers and MNAs than the Chaudhrys' 
PML. 
 
¶7. (C) Akhtar Khan denied that Musharraf had pushed him to split 
from the Chaudhry faction.  Although he confessed that he stayed 
in contact with the former President, he said that he has urged 
Musharraf to remain in the United Kingdom.  In fact, he pointed 
out, Chief of Army Staff Kayani has appointed a brigadier to 
ensure that Musharraf stay away from Pakistan.  Akhtar Khan 
acknowledged that the split in the PML will benefit the two 
major parties, and he expected that a critical vote at the 
federal or provincial levels could prompt the Chaudhrys to side 
with the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Akhtar Khan 
faction to go with the PML-N. 
 
- - - 
Comment: PML Continues Its Slow Motion Disintegration 
- - - 
 
¶8. (C) Although high-profile politicians and former ministers 
have supported the dissidents, they lack the grassroots support 
that the Chaudhrys have managed to cultivate, as indicated by 
the strong pro-Chaudhry showing in the party elections.  But the 
breakaway faction, which comprises several experienced political 
thinkers, still poses a threat to a directionless party, which 
has swerved to cynical anti-U.S. and anti-Musharraf speeches in 
recent months (reftel).  Ultimately, the competing PML parties 
could set the groundwork for them to ally with the larger 
parties in the next round of federal elections, with the 
Chaudhrys going to the PPP and Akhtar Khan with the PML-N.  In 
any case, while the Chaudhrys have demonstrated their continued 
hold within the party, the latest turmoil in the PML hurts the 
Chaudhrys political standing and influence in national affairs. 
LOWE