March 31, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 22, 1429

NOWSHERA, March 30: Pakistan People’s Party general secretary Jehangir Badr has said that the PPP’s central executive committee (CWC), which is going to meet in Larkana on April 3, may ask the party’s federal and provincial ministers who are also holding party offices, to quit their party posts.

Mr Badr, who arrived here to attend the valima ceremony of the nephew of former PPP MNA, Sardar Ali Khan in Pabbi, said, the separation of party offices from the government portfolios was aimed at strengthening the party and the government.

Federal ministers-designate, Najmuddin Khan, Khwaja Mohammad Khan Hoti, speaker NWFP assembly Karamatullah Khan Chagarmati, provincial ministers-designate Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Mohammad Humayun Khan, and Rahimdad Khan were also present on the occasion.

Mr Badr said that any party office-holder, who was going to be a minister at the centre or in a province, would have to quit one of the offices. He added that the party had been pondering over this kind of dichotomy for a long time.

He said that the expression of unanimous confidence in the leadership of Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani as prime minister was a big achievement of the coalition partners and the country.

He denied that PML-Q’s unconditional support for the prime minister was a result of any kind of ‘deal’. He maintained that the MQM was an urban force and the PPP needed its support for a stable government in Sindh adding, the MQM’s induction into the Sindh government would ‘end’ lingual and ethnic prejudices in the province.

Mr Badr said that the PPP would take its coalition partners into confidence over the induction of the MQM in the Sindh government.

He said that talks and cooperation with PML-N, ANP, JUI and MQM were a continuation of the reconciliatory policy evolved by Benazir Bhutto. He added that the PPP would seek cooperation from all the parties in and outside the assemblies on the resolution of the peoples’ problems.

The PPP general secretary praised the media for highlighting the plight of missing people, unconstitutional removal of superior court judges and mobilizing the political forces to defend the civil liberties.