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| 15 May 2004 | Saturday | 24 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
PML to guide govt: Shujaat
ISLAMABAD, May 14: Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Friday that the party would give guidelines to the government in matters pertaining to the expansion of the cabinet and formulation of its policies.
Talking to newsmen after meeting a National Alliance delegation led by former president Sardar Farooq Ahmed Leghari at Punjab House, Chaudhry Shujaat expressed the hope that there would be no personality clashes in the unified League.
He said he had written to Indian prime minister-in-waiting, Sonia Gandhi, and said that party-to-party contacts between the PML and the Congress ought to be maintained. He said he had received a positive response from her.
Chaudhry Shujaat said he had congratulated Ms Gandhi on her party's triumph and reminded her about the progress achieved between outgoing Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee and President Gen Pervez Musharraf in the peace process.
He said he had asked her to make sure that the pace of normalization efforts between the two countries was maintained under her government.
It was decided at the meeting that the merger of the National Alliance with the unified PML would be completed by May 21.
Farooq Leghari told newsmen that the alliance's merger with the PML was unconditional.
Before the formal announcement of the merger, the National Alliance's component parties will hold their separate general council meetings on May 19 and 20 to endorse the decision and dissolve their separate entities to fulfil the requirements.
A committee comprising Senator Mohammad Ali Durrani of the National Alliance and Senator Kamil Ali Agha of the PML was constituted to supervise the arrangements of the function to be held for the announcement of the merger. The alliance's delegation which met Chaudhry Shujaat to congratulate him on his election as the league's president included Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi of the National People's Party and Arbab Ghulam Rahim of the Sindh Democratic Alliance.
The PML leaders present on the occasion were, Majeed Malik, Senate Deputy Chairman Khalilur Rahman, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan, Minister of State for Defence Habibullah Warraich, Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Akram Zaki and Senator Saeed Hashmi.
Chaudhry Shujaat said the new party would strictly follow a consensus constitution and everyone would abide by it in letter and spirit. Every leader who joined the party would be given due respect, he said.
He said the PML had invited the people of the country to join the party founded by the Quaid-i-Azam. The party, he said, would be run on the agenda of social justice instead of personality cult.
He said decision about the party portfolios would be made soon by accommodating all the stakeholders.
Farooq Leghari said he had decided to merge the alliance with the unified PML on the request of President Musharraf.
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