September 11, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 10, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 10: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani advised President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday to accept the resignation of PML-N ministers submitted four months ago.

Sources told Dawn that the request was made after PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif had ‘politely rejected’ an offer by President Asif Zardari to rejoin the ruling coalition.

According to the sources, the prime minister had also discussed the issue of cabinet expansion with President Zardari, who is also co-chairman of the PPP, and it is expected that some two dozen ministers would soon be included in the cabinet.

They said the names of ministers and ministers of state from the PPP had been finalised and the party would make a formal request to its allies in the coalition to finalise the names of their ministers to be included in the cabinet under the agreed formula.The sources said there was a strong possibility that some members of the MQM, which is an ally of the PPP in the Sindh government, would also be inducted in the federal cabinet.

The coalition government formed after the Feb 18 general election suffered a blow when within 42 days of it formation, nine PML-N ministers tendered their resignations after the expiry of the second deadline of May 12 for reinstatement of the deposed judges.

Later, when the PPP and PML-N reached an agreement on August 7 to impeach former president Pervez Musharraf and reinstate the deposed judges within 24 hours after the impeachment, Mr Sharif announced that as a goodwill gesture, three PML-N ministers would rejoin the Gilani cabinet.

However, the PML-N ministers did not attend cabinet meetings and waited for the implementation of the agreement.

When Mr Zardari declined to restore the judges within 24 hours of Gen (retd) Musharraf’s resignation and the PPP nominated him as party’s candidate for the presidential election, Mr Sharif finally decided on Aug 25 to quit the coalition.

When a PML-N delegation, headed by Nawaz Sharif, met Mr Zardari soon after his election as the country’s new president, the PPP again requested PML-N to join the coalition, but the request was politely turned down.