ANP, PPP reach power-sharing accord in NWFP: Urgent issues shortlisted
By Mohammed Riaz
PESHAWAR, March 5: The Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) agreed on Wednesday to form a coalition government in the NWFP and worked out a power-sharing formula.
PPP’s provincial chief Rahimdad Khan said that the two parties also discussed and short-listed the issues that the coalition government would take up immediately after taking over power.
He said the ANP would get 12 ministries and the PPP, as its junior partner, would get nine.
He denied that any adviser or special assistant would be inducted in the government from outside the elected corps. He said the two parties were forming a coalition in the province for the first time to meet the expectations of the people.
Leaders of the two parties held a protracted session on Tuesday night to decide about their share in the cabinet. They first decided to form a small cabinet of 14 ministers, but the ANP which thought it would be difficult to satisfy every district suggested a medium-size cabinet and the PPP agreed.
According to the agreement, the PPP will get the portfolios of revenue and food; irrigation and power; finance, planning and development; industries, minerals and manpower; health and population, and excise and taxation, while the ANP had been given portfolios of law and parliamentary affairs; education, local government and rural development; environment, fisheries and forests; information, sport and culture; Zakat and Ushr; home and tribal affairs; and agriculture.
The PPP has proposed the name of Karamat Khan Chagarmati for the post of the speaker. The parliamentary leaders of the two parties, Rahimdad Khan and Bashir Bilour, will be senior ministers.
Mr Khan said they would have to clear the backlog left by the government of the six-party Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal alliance and the caretaker government.
He said the province was facing a host of problems created by whims of previous rulers.
He said that at present the law and order situation was out of control and this needed to be taken up on a priority basis. Immediate action is needed to rein in criminals.
He said the new government would employ all means to restore the rule of law so that people could live in a crime-free environment.
Mr Khan said it would be unwise to think that the mess would be cleared in a day. “We need cooperation from every segment of society to curb the lawlessness.”
He said price-hike and unemployment were two other problems afflicting the society.
He said that the military regime and its hand-picked but short-lived cabinets had taken anti-people decisions and allowed plunderers, exploiters and profiteers to run the show.
Mr Khan conceded that the task of streamlining things and overcoming the damage wrought by supporters of the dictator would be arduous.
He said the names of ministers would be announced in a couple of days.
