ISLAMABAD April 3: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz announced on Monday that a row between NWFP Governor Khalilur Rahman and Chief Minister Muhammad Akram Durrani over the convening of a provincial assembly had been defused.

“There is no possibility of governor’s rule in the NWFP,” Mr Aziz told reporters at the conclusion of a ground-breaking ceremony of a 5-star hotel here on Monday.

The prime minister claimed to have successfully defused whatever acrimony had arisen between the provincial governor and chief minister over a proposed emergency session to induct two newly elected women MPAs on the advice of Mr Durrani.

Mr Aziz blamed the row on “a misunderstanding between the two men” and said the misunderstanding had been removed. He said both officials had agreed to work together for the welfare of the people of the province without intruding into each other’s domain.

Informed sources in the federal capital said that Mr Rahman had “failed to get support from the centre” for his action.

The governor was summoned to Islamabad and asked to work in accordance with the rules of business and fulfil his duties within constitutional provisions, the sources said.

Both men had a telephonic conversation in the presence of the prime minister and Mr Durrani who also met the prime minister, is scheduled to call on the governor in Peshawar on Tuesday to start afresh their working relationship.

The prime minister met the provincial governor in the morning and the chief minister in the afternoon.

The governor was told that the government could not afford to open a new front as it was already engaged in several external and internal issues, including the problems in the federally administered tribal areas and Balochistan.

Mr Aziz will soon be embarking on a two-day visit to New York to head a conference being held under a UN special committee of three prime ministers including himself, on proposed UN reforms during which he has no plans to hold meetings with any administration officials.