LAHORE, Dec 21: Not satisfied with its share in the Punjab government, the Pakistan People’s Party is all set to ‘press’ the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) to settle such issues after the death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto.
The PPP is looking for devising afresh the so-called ‘power-sharing formula’ with the PML-N. The PPP feels that the cabinet expansion is ‘deliberately’ not being taken up to deprive the party of its ‘rightful’ share in the government. Similar are its views about the provincial parliamentary committees.
What is troubling the PPP-Punjab leadership most is that the opinion of party legislators is not being given ‘weight’ while finalising development projects and in the recruitment process.
“We want our rightful share in the provincial government in a democratic way. Be it a cabinet, parliamentary committees, or other administrative affairs,” PPP Punjab president Rana Aftab Ahmed told Dawn on Sunday.
He considers involving representatives from the both coalition parties in preparation of a ‘working paper’ in this regard which should be followed by the both sides.
Though avoiding to categorically say that there was a strong feeling in the PPP camp that their legislators were not being given their ‘due share’ in the government, Mr Ahmad argued that “now we will seriously negotiate with the PML-N leadership to settle the matter.”
As there is also a talk of replacing a good number of party office-bearers with others, after the change of PPP Punjab general secretary Ghulam Abbas, Mr Ahmed termed it ‘reshuffle’, saying the process would continue both at the tehsil and district levels.
He also said People’s Student Federation (PSF) was also being reactivated. “Governments come and go what matters most is the political party which we need to strengthen,” he added.
However, CM’s special assistant Pervaiz Rashid claims the PPP legislators had been given their due right according to their strength in the Punjab Assembly.
He clarified that the PML-N government was not obliging anyone for ‘illegal demands’. He, however, maintained that a committee headed by PML-N Punjab president Zulifqar Khosa was already there to listen to the problems of the PPP legislators.
When asked PML-N leadership seems to have started politics of confrontation, Mr Rashid said the party had only ‘difference of opinion’ on certain issues with the PPP.
Responding to a query about the relations between governor and the provincial government, he said now both seemed to be coming to terms as indicated by the governor’s ‘soft statements’.