ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif on Friday announced that his party had decided to remove Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ministers from the Punjab government, DawnNews reported.
The notifications of PPP’s provincial ministers will be revoked today, sources told DawnNews.
Nawaz further said that the Punjab cabinet will be dissolved and a new cabinet will be formed.
Addressing media representatives, Nawaz Sharif said his party always wanted to strengthen the democratic process.
He said his party wanted to rid the country of corruption, unemployment and inflation.
Nawaz criticised the record of the Zardari government in the press conference and said the PML-N could no longer partner with the PPP in Punjab.
He further said that "in the beginning, we trusted Asif Zardari...however, the Murree declaration between the PPP and the PML-N was never followed up on...similarly our efforts after that to work with the PPP to resolve national problems did not bear fruit," he said.
Nawaz was speaking to reporters after a majority of PML-N members who attended the party’s meeting on Friday recommended that the alliance with the PPP in Punjab should be broken.
The meeting was presided by Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad.
The meeting was attended by members from the party's provincial councils and party council members from Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
At the end of the meeting, Nawaz Sharif said the PML-N believed in developing consensus and making decisions on those grounds.
Friday’s meeting came after detailed talks on Thursday between Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Thursday’s meeting was held as media reports intensified, predicting that the PML-N will, in its meeting on Friday, decide to expel the PPP from the coalition government in the Punjab as the first step in an anti-government campaign.
The two-hour deliberations, according to insiders, were focussed on the PML-N’s 10-point reforms agenda, the delayed accountability bill, on which the two parties do not see eye to eye and NRO-related issues.
