Time up for PPP: Nawaz

PML-N chief says the government will not be given more time to implement reforms.

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif on Friday said that his party will not give more time to the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government for implementing the 10-point agenda.

Talking to PML-N workers at a meeting in Lahore, the party chief said that with corruption rising to an extreme, his party’s limits were being tested.

PML-N, the main opposition group, has been engaged in negotiations with government interlocutors on economic and governance reforms linked to a 10-point agenda it had given to the PPP.

Nawaz Sharif has given a 45-day deadline to implement the agenda, starting from January 10. Failure to deliver on the economic cum political agenda may lead to the parting of ways for both parties in Punjab.

ANP expresses reservations

A senior leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), Haji Adeel Ahmad, today contacted Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh to express his party's reservations over talks between the PPP and PML-N.

He said that decisions carried out after reform talks between the two parties would be unacceptable to the ANP.

ANP's information secretary Zahid Khan also said that the PPP had not taken his party into confidence on the reforms agenda.

PPP has nothing to be scared of: Riaz

Veteran Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and senior provincial minister Raja Riaz, addressing a press conference in Lahore today, said that if his party is removed from the provincial government, the PML-N will also lose its majority in Punjab.

"We will be very thankful if they remove us. If they remove us PLM-N will also lose majority,” Riaz said.

He warned that the PPP could demand a vote of confidence for the Punjab Chief Minister Shabaz Sharif, who also belongs to the PML-N.

“Apart from that we do have the option of asking the prime minister to take the vote of no-confidence but we will only do this after consultation with our leadership." Raja Riaz told reporters.

On February 14, Riaz had called on the Punjab chief minister to initiate negotiations on a 19-point agenda that the PPP wanted to implement in the province. This initiative was shot down by the PML-N.

Sanaullah rubbishes Riaz

After meeting Nawaz Sharif in Lahore, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that Raja Riaz could not save the PPP from being shown the door in the provincial government by holding press conferences.

Sanaullah said that instead of leveling false allegations through Riaz, the PPP should focus on good governance, corruption and accountability. He said that if the PPP did not get serious in implementing these reforms, February 23 will be its last day in the Punjab government.