ISLAMABAD: As the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek prepare to march on the capital, government and opposition leaders met on Wednesday to reinforce their commitment to safeguarding democracy.

In a meeting between Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and opposition leader Syed Khursheed Shah, both sides agreed to work together to protect democracy.

The meeting is significant as it comes days after reports emerged that certain quarters were calling for Khawaja Asif to be replaced. Shah himself said in a statement on Tuesday that it would be “dangerous” to remove Khawaja Asif on pressure from a “subordinate institution”. In addition, the meeting is also being viewed as important in terms of the resentment voiced by the provinces over the government’s stringent drive against electricity defaulters.

Observers believe that in addition to these issues, the opposition leader’s support to the government over the so-called ‘government-military standoff’ have brought the two sides closer together.

Khawaja Asif ‘reciprocated’ Shah’s gesture by assuring him that there would be no discrimination when the drive against power defaulters is launched in Sindh, where the Pakistan Peoples Party holds power.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Shah said: “Parliament is the country’s supreme institution and no step that could hurt the dignity of parliament and democracy (as a whole) will be supported.”

A source close to the opposition leader told Dawn that the possibility of Khawaja Asif’s removal from office was also discussed in the meeting.

It was in this context that Shah told reporters: “The elected representatives of the people of Pakistan will not be subjected to the undemocratic desires of anyone.”

The defence minister has recently been under fire for statements viewed as being ‘against the army’. The military establishment is believed to be unhappy with his performance as defence minister and have reportedly asked that he be replaced.

PTI’s planned protest

On Wednesday, PTI Chairman Imran Khan reiterated his party’s resolve to use the May 11 march to protest against what he called ‘the rigged elections of 2013’.

Sources close to the government and opposition leader said that both leaders talked about the PTI’s coming protests and their possible repercussions.

Asif lauded the opposition for it role in ensuring the continuity of democracy and said the government would not take any steps that could undermine democratic rule or the dignity of state institutions.

Power defaulters

The government’s drive against electricity defaulters and the charged words of Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali were also discussed in the meeting.

On Tuesday, Khursheed Shah had flayed Sher Ali for humiliating parliamentarians by calling them ‘thieves’. The opposition’s threat of action was carried out on Wednesday when PPP members submitted a privilege motion to the National Assembly secretariat.

In the motion, PPP lawmakers termed the minister’s remarks “inappropriate, derogatory and highly objectionable”.

Shah told Asif, who is also Minister for Water and Power, that the government should not remove transformers to punish a few power thieves because this would also affect people who regularly paid their dues.