February 26, 2008	Tuesday	Safar 18, 1429

LAHORE, Feb 25: Both the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, which are expected to “cooperate” with each other in forming governments at the centre and in Punjab, are yet to discuss and decide the structure of the coalition.

“We haven’t discussed the coalition structure (with the PML-N) in Punjab or at the centre,” PPP spokesman Farhatullah Khan Babar told Dawn from Islamabad on Monday. But, he said, the chief minister of the province would be from the PML-N.

“The focus of our discussions remains on how to go along with the coalition (the PML-N and other parties),” the PPP leader said.

PML-N leader Senator Ishaq Dar also denied reports that the two parties had taken up the issue of the future coalition’s structure in Islamabad or in Lahore.

“Our party has extended its cooperation to the PPP for the formation of its government at the centre and we expect it to collaborate with us in the formation of our government in Punjab,” Mr Dar said.

He denied that negotiations between the two parties had advanced to the stage of finalising modalities of the coalition structure at the federal or the provincial level.

“At present we are concentrating on issues (like restoration of the judiciary’s pre-emergency status in the ongoing discussions with the PPP). The nitty-gritty of coalition structure will be discussed later,” he said.

The PPP and the PML-N share 183 seats -- the former has 79 and the latter 104 — in the Punjab assembly. The total number of seats contested in the Feb 18 elections was 293 as polling on the remaining four was postponed because of the death of candidates.

The PML-Q has got 68 and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal just two seats. Another three were bagged by the PML-F. Some 35 independent candidates have also returned to the provincial assembly.

Both the PPP and the PML-N are trying to woo independents to their sides, besides attempting to win over those elected from the PML-Q platform.

There are reports that the PPP is asking for the governorship of the province in return for supporting the PML-N nominee for the office of the chief minister. But both the parties have been denying such reports.

The PML-N has already named its president Shahbaz Sharif as the leader of its parliamentary party in the Punjab assembly, indicating that he will be its candidate for the office of chief minister.

Farhatullah Babar says that issues relating to the coalition structure in Punjab or at the centre will be discussed and decided after elected members of the national and provincial assemblies were sworn in and the majority parties invited to form their governments.