ISLAMABAD, March 24: Heads of parties in the new ruling coalition and most of their senior leaders are likely to stay away from the oath-taking ceremony of Prime Minister-elect Yusuf Raza Gilani to be held at the Aiwan-i-Sadr on Tuesday. President Pervez Musharraf will administer the oath to Mr Gilani.
Informed sources told Dawn that Aiwan-i-Sadar had sent invitations to heads of all coalition parties, including PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, but none of them was willing to attend the ceremony.
The sources said that unless there was a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations going on among coalition partners on the issue of distribution of portfolios, Mr Gilani would take oath without his cabinet.
They said that names of cabinet members would be announced in a day or two.
A source in the PPP said that officially the party had not asked its members not to attend the ceremony, but party chairman Bilawal and co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari would not be at the ceremony.
The sources said that the party had decided to send its two senior leaders – Pir Aftab Shah Jillani and Afzal Sindhu – to accompany Mr Gilani to the ceremony.
PML-N information secretary and MNA Ahsan Iqbal told Dawn that no PML-N leader would attend the ceremony because the PML-N did not recognise Mr Musharraf as legitimate president.
He said that ministers of his party would take oath from President Musharraf, because they were ‘swallowing this bitter pill’ on the assurance of coalition partners that deposed judges would be reinstated.
“We do not recognise him (Pervez Musharraf) as the president, but our ministers will go there to take oath only in the ‘larger national interest’ and on the assurance that judges will be restored,” Mr Iqbal said.
Information secretary of the Awami National Party (ANP) Zahid Khan told Dawn that he had not been able to contact party president Asfandyar Wali since evening. However, he said, if the heads of other coalition parties were not going to attend the ceremony, how could Mr Asfandyar Wali be expected to do so.
The sources said that differences between the PPP and PML-N over allocation of some strategic and important portfolios was the main reason for the delay in the announcement of the cabinet.
They said that although the coalition parties had agreed on the formula for representation in the federal cabinet and parliamentary standing committees, there were still differences on some ‘strategic portfolios’ like interior, information, defence, finance, commerce and foreign affairs.
Under the agreed formula, all coalition partners will get representation in the cabinet in proportion to their seats in the National Assembly and Senate. The sources said that the PPP was not willing to give the ministries of information and foreign affairs to the PML-N and the latter was not ready to withdraw its claim.
They said there would initially be a 20-member cabinet which would later be expanded to 60 or 70 members to match the size of the much-criticised team of former prime minister Shaukat Aziz. The cabinet will be expanded in two or three phases. The major share of the ministries, including the strategic portfolios, will go to the PPP and the PML-N.
