September 03, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 2, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 2: The PML-N will not rejoin the federal cabinet nor will it stop asking the PPP ministers to quit the Punjab cabinet, a party spokesman said here on Tuesday.

Mr Siddiqul Farooq said experience showed that PPP leaders’ words did not match their deeds and, therefore, it was not possible for the PML-N to trust them.

He was asked to comment on Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s statement that after reinstatement of the deposed judges the PPP would urge the PML-N ministers to rejoin the federal cabinet.

Mr Farooq reiterated his party’s demand that the PPP ministers in Punjab should resign just as the PML-N ministers had left the federal cabinet.

He said mere statements by various PPP leaders carried no weight unless they were backed by concrete actions. He recalled that the PPP leaders had been promising that the deposed judges would be reinstated in line with the Murree Declaration. But the PPP has done nothing to honour the commitment.

Mr Farooq said that ‘reappointment’ of the deposed judges was in violation of the accord between the two parties.

He said that when written agreements had been violated, statements by some PPP leaders could not be given any importance.

Under the Murree Declaration, he pointed out, the deposed judges could not be ‘reappointed’ nor they were required to take a fresh oath.

“Our differences with the PPP are based on principles.”

He recalled that Mr Zardari had been told that the PML-N would have no objection to a PPP man becoming the president, but only if the 17th amendment was repealed. Mr Zardari, he pointed out, was contesting the presidential election while the amendment was still there.

The PML-N leader said that relations between the Punjab governor and the Shahbaz Sharif government were not tension-free.

While the Punjab government wanted to restore the divisional commissioners to improve the working of the local government system, the governor was opposing the plan.