LAHORE, Jan 18: The PML-N has pledged not to allow a ‘compromise’ on the caretaker set-up in Sindh.

PML-N President Nawaz Sharif during a meeting with PML-F President Pir Pagara made it clear on Friday that any ‘deal’ on interim set-up in Sindh would be unacceptable to his party.

A ‘deal’ is feared between the PPP and MQM when the latter becomes an opposition party to enable the two to bring their own caretaker set-up.

The N-League has been expressing concern over the issue of forming caretaker governments in Sindh and Balochistan provinces.

In Sindh, a notification about the appointment of the leader of opposition has not been issued although the post was declared vacant in March last year.

In Balochistan, Governor Zulfiqar Magsi’s brother Tariq Magsi was made the leader of opposition on Dec 22 last year.

Pir Pagara told Mr Sharif that the PML-F was going to move the Sindh High Court against the unwillingness of Speaker Nisar Khuhro to notify F-League MPA Nusrat Seher Abbasi as leader of the opposition.

According to former governor of Sindh, Mamnoon Husain, the PML-F had already engaged an attorney to prepare the case.

He said the PML-F had agreed to form an alliance in Sindh with the PML-N along other likeminded parties for jointly contesting the next elections.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Sharif rejected the Sindh People’s Local Government Act and said it exposed the government’s intentions.

He pledged not to accept the ‘dual local body system’ because it would divide the province.

He said that vacancies in Sindh government departments were being given to cronies, instead of filling them on merit and no-one was taking care of victims of floods and rains in the province.

Referring to Dr Tahirul Qadri’s agreement with the government, he said the Shaikhul Islam had entered into an alliance with the government by setting aside all his demands for which he had organised his march and sit-in.

He taunted Qadri for rushing to Islamabad in the name of ‘saving the state’ and toppling the government of the corrupt but escaped from the scene to save his honour without completing his so-called agenda.

“Those who had gone to save the state managed to return only after saving their honour. It’s a compromise between the Shaikhul Islam and the government befooling the party workers who suffered bitter weather for three days.”

Pir Pagara said his party would side with the PML-N without demanding anything in return.

He said it was clear now that the PPP would fail to form his government at the centre.

He said he had told the PML-N chief that the situation in Sindh was more dangerous than that of East Pakistan in 1970 and, therefore, they would have to come closer to each other for the sake of the federation.

He said President Zardari did not pay heed to problems of doctors, engineers, professors, merchants and farmers in Sindh. The situation in Sindh, he added, was sensitive because the government had not delivered on any front.