November 12, 2002	Tuesday	Ramazan 6, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LAHORE, Nov 11: The PPP will face a split in case it doesn’t succeed in forming its government, a central party leader warned on Monday.

Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, a former federal minister, said while talking to reporters at his office that most of the party leaders wanted to see the PPP in power and they were working to block the way of those who wanted to relegate the party to opposition benches.

Having seen the attitude of the leaders, Mr Hayat said, he had concluded that the party would be divided in case it did not form the government.

The MNA-elect from Jhang said that since no party was in a position to form the government single-handedly, all major parties would have to join hands to set the democratic process in motion after a three-year military rule. The PPP, the PML-Q and the MMA could jointly give the country a stable government, he asserted.

Mr Hayat said the PPP leaders who were in constant contact with Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan should tell the ARD chief that he should give an equal treatment to all his allies. He said it was regrettable that the octogenarian leader felt upset when the PPP leaders met the PML-Q, but he kept silent when the MMA delegations held cooperation talks with the PML-Q.

In case the PPP leaders failed to convince the ARD chief on the point they would be failing in their duties, the member of the PPP’s central executive committee observed.

Asked how the leaders who were trying to bring the PPP to power and others who wanted it to sit on the opposition benches could concurrently claim to be working under instructions from Benazir Bhutto and the chairperson was not preventing either side from going ahead, Mr Hayat said the party’s first option was to set up its government. He said he did not have a ‘written mandate’ in support of his contention but, he added, the same was the position of those leaders who wanted the PPP to play the role of opposition.

Asked why the PPP had not formally nominated its candidate for prime minister if the party was so serious in its efforts to form its government, Mr Hayat said at the recent Dubai meeting he had proposed that Makhdoom Amin Fahim should be nominated for the top office.

He said he did not know why the party had nominated Mr Fahim as the parliamentary leader only.

In reply to a question, Mr Hayat suggested that the parties having representation in parliament should distribute among themselves the offices of prime minister, the Senate chairman, the National Assembly speaker, heads of the provincial governments and cabinet posts according to their strength.

He said that in case the PPP’s point of view on cases pending against various leaders, constitutional matters and electoral reforms was accepted, it would not insist on getting the post of prime minister.

Asked who would vote for the PPP nominee when the ARD president had declared the alliance’s support for the MMA’s candidate for prime minister, Mr Hayat said he was proposing a government of national consensus in the best interest of the country. If any major party was left out, he apprehended, the game of musical chairs would go on unabated.

Answering a question, Mr Hayat said the PPP could work with Gen Musharraf and there was a need for it to have a flexible attitude on the Legal Framework Order as it had contested the elections under the same law.

The PPP leader said the government should also be flexible on constitutional matters, the president’s power to dissolve the assembly and the National Security Council.

If the government and political parties stuck to their positions, the stalemate would continue, he said.