May 6, 2005	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, May 5: President of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Thursday met Defence Minister Rao Sikandar Iqbal and expressed his regret over the incident in which police officials allegedly misbehaved with the minister during a recent visit of the prime minister to Okara, a source told Dawn. According to the source, the PML chief told the minister that the Punjab government would soon take an appropriate action against the police officials concerned for this attitude.

The meeting took place at the defence minister’s chamber during the National Assembly session in which the PML chief termed the incident “regrettable” and said it was a result of some misunderstanding.

Despite the fact that there was no involvement of the Punjab government in the incident, the source said, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said he felt sorry for it.

The source said the defence minister also held a telephonic conversation with Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi in the presence of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao. He said Chaudhry Shujaat had assured the defence minister, who is also chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party- Patriots, that such an incident would not occur in future.

The PML chief expressed his desire to increase cooperation between all coalition partners in the government.

It may be mentioned that Rao Sikandar Iqbal had protested over the non-cooperative attitude of the police officials in his hometown Okara during the visit of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Mr Iqbal had alleged that the police misbehaved with him on the directives of the Punjab chief minister.

The defence minister had announced that he would raise the issue with Gen Musharraf. He had also reportedly boycotted a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence on Wednesday to register his protest over the incident.

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