LAHORE: While Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan has yet to make up his mind to accept any office in the present set-up, Governor Salmaan Taseer has got perturbed over reports that the former has also been offered the Punjab governorship.

 In order to preempt any such move, Taseer has become active and held meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

This is the second time rumours of Taseer’s removal are in the air. The prime minister’s camp had called for his replacement after his (Taseer) failure to install a PPP-led government in Punjab during his rule early this year.

It has also been a long-standing demand of the Sharif brothers who remained Taseer’s centre of criticism in the past.

According to PPP sources, both President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani have assured him that ‘he is going nowhere’, but Taseer has got skeptical after knowing that an ‘understanding’ had been reached between Ahsan and the PPP top command and he may lose his seat to the top lawyer in result of that understanding.

‘Within two months or so, Aitzaz will be back with some party office besides a government one after helping out the rulers on some legal fronts,’ source revealed.
 
Ahsan, whose central executive committee membership was suspended following his role in the movement for the restoration and independence of the judiciary, prefers to remain tight-lipped on the offer(s) made to him by the president and the prime minister.

‘I will not tell what post(s) I am offered (by President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani) but I have not yet made up my mind to accept it,’ Ahsan told Dawn on Monday.

Ahsan, however, made it clear that it did not mean he was rejecting it (offer). ‘At the moment, I am neither accepting nor rejecting any offer.’
 
It is leant that during Zardari-Ahsan last week meeting, the former had sought the latter’s `help’ in dealing with `certain legal matter’.

The PPP government has plunged into crisis following the withdrawal of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) from the National Assembly when its key ally, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, refused to support the bill. Its withdrawal not only caused embarrassment to the ruling party, it also left the party in a catch-22 situation.

The Supreme Court had given four-month time to the government to decide the fate of the NRO and other ordinances promulgated before or during the emergency imposed by General Pervez Musharraf (retired) on Nov 3.

Most of the trustworthy comrades of President Zardari, who are on important seats in the present set-up, had been exonerated in different cases by the Musharraf regime under the NRO.