July 04, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 29, 1429

ISLAMABAD, July 3: The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) on Thursday distanced itself from the government’s recent decisions of increasing prices of petroleum products and launching operation in tribal areas.

“When we are (Pakistan People’s Party’s) coalition partner and supporting them then why did they not take us into confidence on important national issues?” PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif said.

Talking to reporters at the Islamabad airport before leaving for London on Thursday morning, Mr Sharif asserted that coalition partners had agreed in a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s House two months ago that the situation in tribal areas would be handled through negotiations.

He said his party was not aware what had forced the PPP to change the decision and launch an operation in tribal areas.

He asked the PPP to apprise the coalition partners of actual reasons for launching the operation.

Referring to Information Minister Sherry Rehman’s statement that all coalition partners had been on board on the issue of operation in the Khyber Agency, Mr Sharif claimed his party had not been taken into confidence over the issue.

He said that the present parliament was not sovereign and it had failed to come up to the expectations of the people.

The PML-N chief also claimed that the PPP did not consult the coalition parties before raising prices of oil, gas and electricity.

He, however, evaded a question about the possibility the PML-N quitting the coalition government.

“We are very keen to keep the coalition intact. We don’t want disintegration of Pakistan. Therefore, we are not leaving the PPP, but it is not taking us into confidence,” he said.

Later in the afternoon, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif told reporters at the Punjab House that his party had differences with the PPP over some issues, but it would remain part of the coalition government.

In reply to a question, the PML-N chief expressed apprehensions that the country could face disintegration if the government did not resolve the issue of reinstatement of the deposed judges.

When his attention was drawn to a statement of US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher that Washington considered Mr Musharraf as President of Pakistan, Mr Sharif said that he had told Mr Boucher that Mr Musharraf was an “unconstitutional president”.

He said only the people, and no foreign country, would decide the fate of President Musharraf.

“It is our internal matter,” Mr Sharif said, adding that the people of Pakistan knew what should be done with an “unconstitutional president”.