ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People's Party and its coalition partners staged a powerful show on Monday with well over 250 lawmakers turning up at a lunch hosted by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
In the National Assembly of 342 lawmakers, 228 make a two-thirds majority.
To boost their morale, President Asif Ali Zardari also made an appearance and assured the participants that he would not use their support for personal gains and was willing to face courts on his own.
'Rest assured I will never use your support for my personal safety, but yes, desperately need it for strengthening democracy in the country,' said the president in his short but emotional speech to the packed auditorium in the Prime Minister's House.
The meeting lasted for a couple of hours and the president joined it half way through.
Mr Zardari said that as a politician he had faced court cases in the past and would be doing so in the future. Hence, one should not imply 'as if I am using democracy as a shield for myself'.
The prime minister had invited the coalition partners to seek their support for the resolution that the government had moved in the National Assembly in favour of democracy.
Reiterating the PPP's support for an independent judiciary, the president said the party had always held judiciary in high esteem and would never opt for confrontation with institutions.
Talking about the current tension between civilian and military leadership, the president said problems did arise between institutions but the PPP believed in resolving them through discussion.
According to sources in thePPP, issues between civilian and military leadership had been sorted out and Mr Zardari conveyed the message to leaders of the coalition parties.
In his opening speech, the prime minister said he had invited the coalition partners to discuss a one-point agenda to seek their help for smooth passage of the resolution.
Mr Gilani compared achievements of the current National Assembly with those of the previous houses. He said that earlier even the elected houses were not allowed to elect their leaders because the decision used to be imposed from somewhere else.
'The PPP has made this parliament powerful, and regardless of his tenure he is only interested in completion of a five-year constitutional term of the National Assembly for which your support was of critical importance,' he was quoted as saying.
When asked to speak, PMLQ leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said that after 40 years of animosity with the PPP they had become friends and, therefore, his party would not ditch the government at this critical juncture.
'The PML-Q has taken more than two and a half years to join the government because many in the party were not in its favour. Now we have joined hands, will stand by the government, come what may,' said Mr Elahi.
Farooq Sattar of the MQM and Asfandyar Wali Khan of the ANP also spoke about their parties' unflinching support to the government.
Earlier, Prime Minister Gilani held meetings with Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Aftab Ahmad Sherpao and Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who are reported to have advised him to avoid confrontation among institutions.