ISLAMABAD, Dec 31: President Asif Ali Zardari reiterated on Wednesday PPP’s resolve to maintain good relations with its coalition partners, including the Pakistan Muslim League-N, but did not rule out the possibility of entering into an alliance with the PML-Q, sources told Dawn.
In a meeting with Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, Awami National Party chief Asfandyar Wali and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the president said: “We want to improve relations with the PML-N.”
The meeting focussed on three major issues -- the possibility of a PPP-PML-Q alliance, problems of district nazims and coming Senate elections.
The sources said that the PPP and PML-Q might cooperate during the Senate elections, even at the risk of inviting severe criticism.
Zulqurnain Tahir adds from Lahore: According to a source in the PPP, Mr Zardari wants to take the provincial leadership of his party into confidence before authorising Mr Taseer to strike a deal with the PML-Q.
Although just before the first death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto, the PPP leadership in Punjab had stepped up pressure on the Sharifs to give them their ‘due share’ in the provincial government, things changed after a reported meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi at a wedding in Dubai.
Harsh statements, particularly by Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mr Zardari, aggravated the distrust between the two parties.
“It appears that relations between the two parties have reached a point of no return.
The PPP is no longer in a mood to tolerate the PML-N government in Punjab,” the source said, adding that the PPP possibly believed that time had come for it to install its government with the support of the opposition and the forward bloc in the PML-Q.
A source in the PML-Q said that his party was in a good position to claim a major share in the Punjab government if an alliance with the PPP materialised.
He further said that the PML-Q was strongly placed and could even claim post of chief minister if its forward bloc returned to its fold.