August 27, 2008	Wednesday	Sha'aban 24, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 26: Both the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N played it cool in the National Assembly on Tuesday, a day after the PML-N withdrew from the five-month-old coalition government triggering a political turmoil.

Neither of the two sides fired any flak at the other even after their parties filed nomination papers before the Election Commission of their candidates for the August 6 presidential election, which became one of the two main contentions that caused Monday’s split between the two main coalition partners only a week after their joint threat to impeach him forced President Pervez Musharraf to resign.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters his government would request the PML-N to rejoin the coalition after it had restored the deposed judges.

But he gave no hint whether the restoration of the judges, the main point of difference between the two parties, could come before or after the election of the president by an electoral college of the two houses of parliament and the four provincial assemblies.

Amid the speculation about the future of shape of things, PML-N parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan seemed most likely to become a strong opposition leader in the National Assembly as the party pressed for the allocation of new seats in the 342-seat house.

But the stint of the seven-time member from the Punjab province’s Rawalpindi district to lead a big opposition, which will also include strong Musharraf loyalists in the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Q, could last only until PML-N leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is elected to the lower house after removal of legal hurdles to his candidacy.

PML-N lawmakers continued occupying their seats on the treasury benches but not many of them turned up, and those who came avoided launching any attack on the coalition led by the PPP that it accuses of betrayal by refusing an immediate restoration of the judges as promised and unilaterally nominating its co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari as a presidential candidate.

The election fever gripped the house hours after Mr Zardari, PML-N candidate and former chief justice Seeduz Zaman Siddiqui and 30 other candidates had filed their nomination papers as members on both sides of the political divide were seen having their own mini conferences by pulling together their moveable revolving seats amid an otherwise dull proceedings on the last private members’ day of the current session that is scheduled to last until Friday.

On a motion moved by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Farooq H. Naek, the house permitted the use of its hall for voting by its own and Senate members in the presidential election, while the provincial assemblies will vote at their own respective chambers.

PML-N sources said the party had sent a request to Speaker Fehmida Mirza on Monday to allocate its 92 members seats on the opposition benches and she was reminded of it even on Tuesday.

But the sources said no request had yet been made to her to name Chaudhry Nisar as the opposition leader to replace incumbent Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, whose 54-member PML-Q parliamentary group will be reduced to second position on the opposition benches.

But they said Chaudhry Nisar, known for his hard line against the Musharraf presidency and during negotiations with the PPP for an alliance, would be the natural choice for the job as present leader of the party’s parliamentary group in the National Assembly, which is set to see more changes with the likely switchover of the 25 members of another former Musharraf ally, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and some smaller groups to the side of government to save it from a collapse.

As most members of the house seemed absorbed discussing and speculating about their political future, assurances from Prime Minister Gilani and Finance Minister Naveed Qamar about a “Ramazan package” to provide cheaper and abundant supplies of essential items at the state-run utility stores brought little joy in the house in view of the government’s failure so far to give any relief from the current wave of inflation and food shortages.

Mr Gilani said his government had moved on a “war footing” to set up outlets of its Utility Stores Corporation to sell 550 items of daily use and that he had ordered that the three most essential food items of flour, lentils and cooking oil must be available at each store.

Mr Qamar said the “Ramazan package”, which is yet to be announced, would offer both essential and non-essential items at subsidized rates at the corporation’s own as well as franchised stores.