September 14, 2007	Friday	Ramazan 1, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 13: Pakistan Muslim League president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday discussed the political situation, especially the fallout of the deportation of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to Saudi Arabia.

Sources say senior PML leaders are not happy over the deportation decision, which, according to them, was against the recommendation of the majority of the 200-member central working committee of the party.

The two leaders also discussed issues relating to President Pervez Musharraf’s re-election and the general elections, which area likely to be held in January 2008.

A handout said that the meeting discussed the PML’s election strategy and reiterated that the PML and allied parties strongly supported President Pervez Musharraf’s re-election in order to maintain consistency and continuity of policies.

Prime Minister Aziz said the PML and allied parties would participate in the coming election on the basis of their policies and performance.

Chaudhry Shujaat said the performance of the government during the past five years had given hope to the people which had resulted in a sea change in their standard of living and this needed to be continued so

that they could benefit from

the broad-based reforms,

improvement in infrastructure, reduction of poverty, creation

of jobs and provision of necessities like clean drinking water, roads, electricity, telephones, gas, education and health facilities.

It also reviewed measures taken by the government to improve supply of essential commodities during Ramazan, induction of price magistrates, establishment of sasta bazaars and use of Utility Stores for providing essential food items to the people at reasonable prices.