October 19, 2002	Saturday	Sha'aban 12, 1423

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LAHORE, Oct 18: The People’s Party Parliamentarians and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal will have no reservations about them forming a government with their erstwhile rival PML(Q), sources told Dawn on Friday.

This shift in their position is in direct contradiction to Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan’s statement that the ARD and the MMA should form government, or else sit on the opposition benches. This leaves no room for cooperation with the PML(Q).

The Nawabzada has said that the principles for which the ARD and MMA have been struggling for the past three years should be held high at all costs.

Ignoring the veteran leader’s prescription, the PPP sources said: “Our point of view has been enunciated by Ms Benazir Bhutto. We want to strengthen the democratic system. And, for this purpose, we are ready to forget the bitterness of the past. We no longer have any reservations about cooperation with the PML(Q)”.

The sources said, being a democratic party it would not be prudent for them not to accept the mandate of other parties, including the PML(Q).

“We can talk to the PML(Q), PML(N), MMA and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement for the formation of a national consensus government,” the PPP sources said.

The sources said the party’s legislators-elect would take oath under the Constitution, though the Legal Framework Order is now a part of it. Once parliament is in session, the legislators would then look into the amendments made to the Constitution during the past three years.

The MMA, on the other hand, is more inclined to cooperate with the PML(Q) than the PPP, the MMA sources said.

“The MMA has a tilt towards the PML(Q). It feels that since the MMA will have its governments in the NWFP and Balochistan, cooperation with the PML(Q) for the formation of a government in Islamabad will ensure a better working relationship between the centre and the provinces,” the sources said on condition of anonymity.