May 22, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 05, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 21: Senior leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League on Monday criticised government’s handling of the judicial crisis, massive loadshedding in the country and the May 12 bloodbath in Karachi.

They stressed the need for proper preparations for the next elections and reposed their confidence in President Pervez Musharraf.

A meeting of the central executive committee of the PML, presided over by party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, federal ministers, chief ministers and senior leaders, discussed at length issues haunting the government and suggested that crises should be resolved through political means, sources told Dawn.

The prime minister informed the meeting that the next budget would be pro-people.

He said salary and pension packages would be increased and poverty alleviation programmes would be provided adequate funds.

The meeting, which was held at the party secretariat, was extended for another day and will be held at the Prime Minister’s House on Tuesday.

The meeting authorised the PML chief to renegotiate a deal for permanent settlement of the Lal Masjid standoff which was challenging the writ of the government.

Former prime minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali surprised the meeting when he announced that he was resigning from party membership in protest against what he termed “complete ignorance by the party leadership in meetings and discussions after he was ousted from the office of prime minister”.

He said that party president Chaudhry Shujaat had visited his native place where the Khosa family was joining the PML, but he did not visit his home where he kept waiting along with hundreds of people.

The party leaders, however, unanimously rejected his resignation and asked Chaudhry Shujaat to apologise Mr Jamali.

PML vice-president Syed Kabir Ali Wasti criticised Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for what he called advising the president on sending a reference against the chief justice without taking the party into confidence.

He said the people killed in Karachi on May 12 were “our sons and brothers” and it should not be taken lightly.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed felt that the party was not organised and mobilised as it should have been. He proposed that the CEC should endorse policies of the president Musharraf.

Justice (retd) Azam Khan said Chaudhry Shujaat and Zafarullah Khan Jamali should play their role in defusing the situation arising out of the presidential reference and help find a political solution.

The prime minister assured the party that the government would utilise all resources to introduce public welfare schemes and enhance standard of living of the common man.