Season of recrimination as PPP, PML-N part ways
ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and its erstwhile coalition partner in Punjab, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), have exchanged recriminations in the wake of Nawaz Sharif’s announcement to part ways with the latter.
Published: Wed 2 Mar 2011, 12:48 AM
Last updated: Wed 12 Feb 2020, 3:45 PM
The PPP, however, has declared that it would not destabilise the PML-N government nor move any no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
PPP leader Raja Riaz told reporters in Lahore on Monday that President Asif Zardari has directed the party to continue with the policy of reconciliation.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif fired the first salvo, launching a blistering attack on President Zardari, accusing him of pursuing ?policies against the Punjab government.
Raja Riaz said the president, however, refused to be drawn into any direct confrontation, and asked party leadership in Punjab not to indulge in “dirty politics” but work to strengthen democracy through fair play.
A fresh irritant has cropped up with the delay by Punjab Governor Latif Khosa to approve a summary sent by Shahbaz, advising the governor to remove the seven PPP ministers from the provincial cabinet.
He is reportedly planning to accommodate the ‘Unification Bloc’, which comprises dissident lawmakers from the PML-Q, in the cabinet. Khosa on Monday flew to Karachi and met President Zardari to discuss the latest developments in Punjab.
The PML-N move elicited a caustic comment from the president. “Some friends are trying to form a government with the help of turncoats,” he said while referring to the so-called “Unification Bloc” of PML-Q rebels which is supporting Sharif.
For his part, the president said he was against undemocratic means and vowed to disallow anyone from resorting to the same. He regretted what he called the “politics of Changa Manga’, a reference to Nawaz Sharif’s move to buy the support of independent members in 1989-90 to form government in Punjab.
Responding to the provocative statements of some PML-N leaders, President Zardari said that those trying to revive the politics of the ‘90s would fail in their designs.
Earlier, speaking at a function in Lahore, the Punjab chief minister claimed that supply of natural gas to his province has been suspended intentionally and the purpose was to malign the PML-N government in the province. And in the same breath he warned the president to stop this ‘drama’.
He alleged that the PPP-led federal government at the Centre was instigating people to rise in protest against the provincial government by creating an ?artificial natural gas shortage in the province. This, he said, would financially weaken the provincial government and increase unemployment in Punjab. But he warned that the Centre would not escape its impact.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who has often won over the Sharif brothers with his reconciliatory approach, poured scorn on Shahbaz’s claim. According to him, he had asked the chief minister to take up the issue of gas loadshedding in the Council of Common Interest (CCI) but Sharif refused to do so. “I cannot change the existing laws which deal with such issues,” the premier told the media at his Lahore residence.
mafzalkhan@yahoo.com
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