TALKING to newsmen after exchanging views with President Zardari in a cordial atmosphere at a banquet for the visiting Chinese premier, PML-N president Nawaz Sharif said that he would not seek the president’s resignation. He said no single political party could resolve the problems being currently faced by the country. [And that] ‘we have agreed on jointly moving ahead, and will implement the Charter of Democracy signed by … Benazir Bhutto’. He said his discussion with the president remained positive and [they] now had no personal grudge. Mr Zardari is an elected president and he has the right to complete his tenure.

Everyone will welcome what Mr Sharif has said. His statement reflected the insight of a wise … politician. The meeting … removed many misunderstandings. … The reality is that no single party can make a claim of single-handedly resolving the plethora of problems being confronted by the country. … One can hope for good if all political parties jointly move towards their resolution. Industry in the country has been destroyed. Law and order has never been [as] bad in the country’s … history as it is today. Undemocratic forces and non-state actors are operating at will. Terrorists are at the point of dictating their will to the government, and its writ is missing everywhere. The power crisis alone is so deep that the entire nation is looking towards a saviour [to get] rid of it.

On one hand the crises are so deep and on the other no one has Aladdin’s lamp from which a genie will emerge and resolve all the issues. The … protracted issues are hard to resolve instantaneously. Nawaz Sharif’s recent stance is like an earthen lamp which shows the path in pitch darkness. May Allah keep this camaraderie intact, and [may] the major political parties in the country continue to concertedly resolve the problems of the people. — (May 23)

Selected and translated by Intikhab Hanif.