ISLAMABAD: In a major shift in its stance, the Pakistan Muslim League-N has decided to contact all parities, including the MQM and PML-Q, in a bid to mount pressure on the beleaguered PPP to announce early election.
The move, according to sources, is aimed at thwarting the possibility of a ‘third force’ taking advantage of the situation arising out of the memo scandal and observations made by the Supreme Court about implementation of its NRO judgment.
PML-N information secretary Senator Mushahidullah Khan said he would not rule out talks with different parties at the parliament level and a meeting between PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mian Nawaz Sharif at a later stage.
He said his party was ready for talks with any party agreeing to its agenda for free and fair elections under an independent Election Commission.
The sources said that despite its reservations about the Zardari-Gilani set-up, the PML-N leadership had nothing to do with elements who were floating the proposal for following the ‘Bangladesh model’ before the next elections.
They said the party would not support any arrangement under which a set-up of technocrats would be imposed with the support of judiciary and the army.
“By no means will the party allow an undemocratic transition of power, an interim set-up led by technocrats as is being suggested by some forces,” a PML-N office-bearer said.
The sources said initially the second tier of the PML-N leadership would approach the PML-Q and MQM to prepare ground for direct talks at the top level.
The party has already started deliberations with parties in the opposition in search for a common agenda which could be the basis of its talks with the MQM and the PML-Q.
The PML-N leader said his party wanted early polls and it would like to seek support of other parties on the matter.
“In the past the PML-N was accused of always going solo on national issues, thus, but this time it wants to get over this stigma,” he said.
A PML-N lawmaker said the issue of faulty electoral rolls was yet to be sorted out.
The Supreme Court has given the deadline of Feb 23 for completing the rolls, but officials in the Election Commission insist that the work cannot be completed before May.
Confirming PML-N’s behind-the-scene contacts with the ruling PPP to persuade the government to agree to early elections, the sources said the main concern of the opposition was to avoid a repeat of events experienced in the 1990s when similar crisis led to army intervention.
“We want politics and democracy to move ahead without any support which historically had been sought from the GHQ,” a PML-N office-bearer said.
Rejecting a perception that the PML-N leadership was unable to decide whether to support the establishment’s effort to bring down the government or pursue its stand of parliament’s supremacy, he said: “Although some hawks in the party want all-out confrontation with the government we will not allow any unconstitutional and undemocratic move.”
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