LAHORE, March 8: The Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N put up a ‘show of strength’ here on Saturday night even though they are yet to formalise an understanding on sharing power.
“The PPP wants the PML-N to share responsibility at the centre as we have agreed to do in this province,” Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Punjab PPP’s chief, told reporters before leaving for a dinner hosted by PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif.
“It will lend stability to the (democratic) system,” he said after a meeting of his party’s newly elected members of the Punjab Assembly.
Mr Qureshi said the two parties had agreed on “broad issues of power-sharing” at the centre and in Punjab, but had yet to work out the modalities.
His remarks implied that the PML-N was still reluctant to accept ministries at the centre because it did not want its members to be sworn in by President Pervez Musharraf.
Some reports suggested that the party had proposed that its members be given the position of ‘advisers’ in the coalition government because in that case, the president would not administer the oath of office.
However, a senior PPP leader said the two parties were trying to “find a way out”.
Mr Qureshi said the power-sharing formula was being discussed by a seven-member committee. Nisar Ali Khan, Ishaq Dar and Khawaja Asif represent the PML-N on the committee while Raja Pervez Ashraf, Raza Rabbani, Sherry Rehman and Farooq Naik represent the People’s Party.Mr Qureshi said PPP had spurned an offer from “official quarters” to form its own government in Punjab with the support of PML-Q. “We have decided to sit in a coalition with PML-N because we respect the mandate of the people of the province.
“The PPP does not believe in capturing power through backdoor deals. We want to forget the past and start afresh to strengthen democratic institutions in the country,” he said.
About PPP’s candidate for the office of prime minister, he said the party’s co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, had begun consultations and would announce a name after a meeting of the central executive committee (CEC).
“Makhdoom Amin Fahim is highly respected in the party but no decision has yet been made.”
