April 22, 2006	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, April 21: Central Information Secretary of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) Sherry Rehman on Friday said the government was in total panic after reports of the meeting between the two former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif in London and it had intensified its disinformation campaign against the opposition parties.

Talking to a group of reporters at the residence of a PPP activist Syed Kashif Rizvi, the newly-appointed information secretary of the party said that the government was perturbed over the proximity between the PPP and the PML-N.

Ms Rehman said there had been complete chaos in the government ranks which was evident from the Saturday’s meeting of Gen Musharraf with the members of the Patriots group.

Similarly, she said the government was unable to reshuffle the federal cabinet due to internal rifts and crisis. She claimed Gen Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during their meeting on Friday failed to finalize changes in the federal cabinet as all the coalition partners were demanding their shares.

In her first chat with the reporters after assuming the office of the party’s information secretary, Ms Rehman expressed the hope that Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif would sign the “charter of democracy” in May, this year. She said that her party had suggested some new points in the already agreed “charter of democracy.”

When asked why the opposition had failed to launch a movement against the regime, Ms Rehman said that the opposition parties had been struggling for the restoration of democracy. She said in the past, whenever the party leaders announced any public meeting or a rally, the government enforced Section 144.

“Remember the time, when we were going to receive Asif Zardari at Lahore Airport and the government arrested all our leaders and workers and put them in jails,” she said.

Criticizing the economic policies of the government, Ms Rehman said the government had failed to control price-hike.