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| 04 June 2004 | Friday | 15 Rabi-us-Saani 1425 |
Shujaat calls for consensus govt in Sindh
ISLAMABAD, June 3: Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Thursday invited the People's Party Parliamentarians and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal to join a 'national consensus government' in Sindh in order to restore peace in Karachi.
The PPP, however, turned down the offer, terming it an attempt to sideline its chairperson Benazir Bhutto. Talking to reporters at the Parliament House, Chaudhry Shujaat said he had made the offer to the main opposition groups in the Sindh Assembly during separate meetings with MMA leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed and PPP president Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said the party would not become part of any system under General Pervez Musharraf. Earlier, Chaudhry Shujaat claimed that Qazi Hussain Ahmed had expressed his willingness to accept the offer while Mr Fahim had demanded chief ministership.
The PML chief said he had urged the two opposition leaders to forget political differences in the larger national interest and form a consensus government. The proposed arrangement would be limited to Sindh and the federal government would not interfere in its affairs, he added.
He said the opposition members had been requested not to create any controversy about who had a majority in the province. In response to the PPP's demand for chief ministership, Chaudhry Shujaat said the PPP had been offered the office soon after the 2002 elections but at that time Ms Bhutto did not accept it. He said he expected a similar response from Ms Bhutto this time.
Later, Mr Fahim told journalists that the situation in Sindh was due to the fact that the establishment had ignored the majority party in the formation of the government and asked the minority groups to form a government. At that time, he claimed, an ISI team remained active in Karachi till the formation of the government.
He said the PPP had a majority in the assembly and added that getting the office of chief minister was its right. Mr Fahim denied that he had put the condition of getting the chief ministership in talks with Chaudhry Shujaat.
The PPP leader said he had told Chaudhry Shujaat that the rulers should accept the majority of the PPP before initiating any coalition dialogue. He said if the party received any 'serious' proposal about the formation of government in Sindh, then the decision would be taken by the party after consultations.
He said Karachi was burning and the rulers were busy taking steps for their own safety and protection. When contacted for official comments on the recent development, Mr Babar, the PPP spokesman, said the regime had sought to create an impression that the PPP was willing to participate in a new coalition set-up in Sindh provided it was given chief ministership.
He said the PPP would not demand any political office in return for bailing the military regime out of the crisis that it itself had created. He said Chaudhry Shujaat had been told that the mess created was the direct result of the regime's failure to honour people's mandate.
The solution, he said, lay in free and fair elections that should be held under a human rights commission. He said it had been the consistent policy of the party to disregard proposals made without reference to the party chairperson. "Attempts made in the past to sidestep the party chairperson have failed. Such attempts will fail in future too," he added.
A spokesman for the MMA, Shahid Shamsi, said Qazi Hussain Ahmed had told Chaudhry Shujaat that the MMA had no objection to the formation of a national consensus government in Sindh but he had made it clear that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement should not be made part of it.
Moreover, Mr Shamsi said, the MMA wanted that the provincial governor should also be changed as the incumbent governor, Ishratul Ibad, would not be acceptable to them under any set-up. The spokesman said that the PPP, being the largest party in the province, had every right to form the new government.
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