PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and JUI-F Maulana Fazlur Rehman held a meeting at Jati Umra in Lahore on Monday. PHOTO: ONLINE
LAHORE:
Leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) on Monday agreed to bury the hatchet and cooperate with each other in the upcoming elections.
The decision was announced at the end of a marathon meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Maulana Fazlur Rehman at Jati Umra in Lahore.
Forming two separate committees to chalk out modalities of cooperation during elections, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) also agreed to consult all political parties, whether in parliament or not, on the future caretaker set-up in the provinces and centre.
Accepting the invitation to attend the forthcoming All Parties Conference convened by JUI-F in Islamabad on February 28, Nawaz appreciated Maulana Fazl’s efforts to convene a peace jirga for the establishment of peace in Fata. He said progress and elimination of poverty was impossible without peace in Pakistan and the region.
Addressing a joint press conference after the meeting, PML-N leader said that both parties had agreed to hold wide-ranging consultations with all political parties for the finalisation of a caretaker set-up. However, he added, if a consensus could not be reached on a caretaker setup, the vote of the majority should be accepted as a democratic principle.
Nawaz said that like him, Maulana Fazl had strong faith in democracy. Their parties were playing their role for the strengthening of democratic processes in Pakistan.
Calling the offer of talks by the Taliban a positive development, Maulana Fazl said that political leadership should respond to the offer positively as well.
Rehman noted that the participation of PML-N in the peace jirga would augur well for the establishment of peace, and called upon all political forces in the country to unite and face the uphill challenges confronting the nation.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2013.
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