PPP members urge party to quit Punjab govt

PPP members send recommendations to their leadership advising it to quit the coalition in Punjab.


Express/abdul Manan January 08, 2011

LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab members on Saturday sent recommendations to their leadership advising it to quit the coalition in Punjab.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had given the government until January 10, 2011 to respond to a nine-point agenda or else face expulsion from the coalition government in Punjab.

Talking to the media outside the Governor House in Lahore, PPP Punjab President Imtiaz Safdar Warraich asserted that the decision to pull out of the provincial government cannot be reversed.

Meanwhile, member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) forward block Atta Muhammad Manika said that his party will support the PML-N in Punjab.

Speaking to Express News, Manika said that no party can form a government in Punjab without including forward block members.

He was of the view that it is difficult for the PPP and the PML Q to destabalise the PML-N government in the province, adding that no party wants to play any role in forcing the PPP to quit the federal government.

updated from print edition (below)

Nine-point agenda: PML-N reminds PPP of impending deadline

Though the PPP-led coalition seems to have wriggled out of a crisis after winning over the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the main opposition party – the PML-N – has reminded the ruling party that it will stick to the deadline it set earlier this week.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had given the government – which had lost its majority in the centre with the MQM gone - until January 10 to respond to a nine-point agenda or else face expulsion from the coalition government in Punjab.

On Friday, Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah told journalists in Lahore that the PPP would have to respond, ‘yes or no’ to the PML-N’s agenda by January 10.

Sources in the PML-N have told The Express Tribune that the party has decided to de-notify seven provincial ministers from the PPP after the expiry of the deadline.

However, to counter this, the Punjab chapter of the PPP is considering forming a coalition government with the help of the PML-Quaid, if need be, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Sanaullah shifted the blame of the assassination of the Punjab governor to the PPP saying that the ruling party had failed to provide proper security to Salmaan Taseer.

Federal Law Minister Babar Awan has described Taseer’s murder as a political killing. But Sanaullah said Awan was happy with the murder because he was aspiring for the office of the governor Punjab. “Although Taseer was not a religious man, his death was the result of a controversy between the PPP and religious parties over the blasphemy laws,” he added.

Earlier Punjab Senior Minister Raja Riaz said that if PML-N would de-notify provincial ministries from the PPP, the party would form a coalition government with the PML-Q.

Awan accused the PML-N of supporting Salmaan Taseer’s assassin. He also claimed that the president of PML-N lawyers’ wing at Islamabad had garlanded Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri. He also said that the PPP would respond to the PML-N deadline after January 10.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8th, 2011.

COMMENTS (14)

Mevish Naz | 13 years ago | Reply The PPP has been exceptionally patient with the PML-N. In Punjab, the six provincial ministers who belong to the PPP have complained again and again of how they have been unable to perform because of lack of empowerment or participation in the affairs of the province. Shahbaz Sharif has kept 13 important ministries, including the home ministry, planning and development ministry and information ministry, in his pocket. His policies have failed to deliver and arguably have put the finances of Punjab in dire straits. The province is almost bankrupt; salaries and contractors cannot be paid. The tight budgetary position generally has been made worse in Punjab by populist but ill thought through policies and programmes, some of which, such as the Sasti Roti (cheap bread) scheme, had eventually to be abandoned after millions went down the drain in quixotic fashion. In such circumstances the PPP ministers and the party as a whole have been practising extraordinary restraint and tolerance.
optimistic | 13 years ago | Reply it is better for the PPPP to leave now and can say that we left at our own for the BEST INTEREST OF PEOPLE other wise once thrown out of cabinet they wont have enough alphabets to defend themselves(**OF COURSE ITS NOT THEIR WILL TO LEAVE THE MINISTRIES LIKE JUIF ).
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