July 24, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1429

LAHORE, July 23: Pakistan People’s Party leader Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali has said the PPP and the PML-N should part ways to allow a new workable coalition to run the government smoothly.

He was speaking at a seminar of the People’s Lawyers Forum on ‘The masses real heirs to power and sovereignty’ at the Karachi Shuhada Hall of the Lahore High Court Bar Association on Wednesday.

“The PPP and the PML-N do not agree even on fundamentals. The PPP is wasting its precious time in trying to develop consensus with the PML-N on key national issues,” the former foreign minister said.

PPP Secretary-General Jahangir Badr was invited as the chief guest, but he could not attend the seminar. PLF President Mian Muhammad Jahangir, Prof Ejazul Hassan, S.M. Masood, Muhammad Kazim Khan, Raja Riaz, Mian Raza Rabbani and Samina Khalid Ghurki were prominent among the speakers.

Sardar Assef said the PML-N, despite being a coalition partner, supported the long march for the judges’ restoration and strained parliament. The PPP wanted to save the country from crises by resolving all issues, he said, but the coalition partner was creating an environment in which consensus was not possible.

The lawyers’ long march, backed by the PML-N, should have been against President Musharraf and the presidency but it headed toward the newly-constituted parliament, he said.

He said the PPP had introduced constitutional package to resolve all national issues, including the 58 (2) b and the judges’ issue, but the Nawaz-led party was still insisting on restoration of the deposed judges through a resolution.

He feared that if the judges were restored by an executive order, a new battle would start between President Musharraf, supported by the Pakistan Army and the PPP, and parliament. And such a tussle painted a bleak future for parliament, he added.

The ex-minister said extremists and Taliban were taking control of parts of Pakistan and they were planning to impose their own laws by force. It would be a mistake to ignore international politics in the region and strain relations with the US, he said.