February 4, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 5, 1427

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ISLAMABAD Feb 3: All 35 members of the central executive committee of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, including Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and PML president Chaudhry Shujaat, spoke on the forthcoming Senate elections and the Balochistan situation at a meeting of the committee on Friday.

The prime minister said that party tickets would be allotted on merit and stressed the need for seeking a political solution to the Balochistan situation.

The committee, which took stock of the overall political situation obtaining in the country, censured the publishing of caricatures depicting Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in a Danish newspaper and endorsed the government’s prompt reaction on the issue.

The PML’s CEC passed two resolutions. The first condemned the European newspapers for starting a campaign to malign Islam and the second one paid tribute to President Pervez Musharraf, especially with reference to his visit to Norway and Oslo and representing the country on world forum in most befitting way.

The meeting, which was expected to last no more than two hours, was extended to accomodate PML leaders’ emotional speeches. Insiders said a few leaguers criticised the leadership for withholding the decision on allotment of tickets.

Some members said senators vacating their seats should be allowed to continue while others favoured bringing fresh candidates to the senate.

The meeting was informed that so far, 117 applications had been received and more were expected over the next few days after which the parliamentary board would take up the list to pick suitable candidates.

The prolonged meeting angered newsmen, who were waiting for a briefing and they walked out from the PML House in protest after a wait of two and a half hours. The PM told the PML meeting that he had taken up the missile attack on Bajaur in his meetings with President Bush during his recent visit to the US. He said he had received an assurance that such incidents would not occur in future.

He is reported to have told senior US high officials that there should be no discrimination in peaceful use of nuclear energy. He said Pakistan had impressed upon the US administration that Pakistan wanted peaceful use of nuclear energy in the next 20 years.

The meeting decided to start party’s centenary celebrations from March 23. The celebrations were set to start in December but had been postponed because of earthquake.