Unnerving uncertainty: Cabinet in huddle over political tremors

ISLAMABAD: Behind the closed doors of the cabinet room, members of the federal cabinet have expressed concern over the charged political situation – particularly in light of the main opposition party’s latest threat to quit the assemblies just before the Senate elections in March next year.

Chairing a meeting of the federal cabinet in Islamabad on Wednesday against the backdrop of a charged political situation across the country, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani worked to band his cabinet together – saying that his administration is not oblivious to the emerging political crisis and will prepare to tackle all challenges.

“We will have to move before it gets too late,” a participant quoted Gilani as saying in the meeting.

Insiders said the prime minister has decided to convene a meeting of allied parties’ leaders after some cabinet members, including from the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), expressed concerns about the political uncertainty.

“Some of them were really worried and wanted to know what the government plans to do now,” one of the participants added.

Another source said officials from various ministries were asked to leave the committee room when Housing Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat raised the issue.

Information Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan told journalists that Gilani informed the cabinet on future political moves after some ministers asked him to explain the government’s position in light of the Pakistan Muslim Leagues –Nawaz (PML-N)’s fresh threat on Tuesday to resign from the parliament.

She said top leaders from the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and its allied groups will soon decide on how to tackle the opposition’s plans to seek fresh parliamentary polls ahead of Senate elections scheduled for March 2013.

“The (opposition) is playing games…and we will do what suits us,” Awan said, but did not explain the strategy her party might come up with together with allies. All that the information minister had to say was that allied parties had “expressed solidarity” with the president and the prime minister.

Awan said the government had realised that the PML-N wants to dislodge it before the Senate elections because it does not want to see PPP become a majority in the upper house. But she insisted that the opposition did not have any constitutional way to do so.

According to a handout, the cabinet also condemned the killing of three Hindu doctors in Shikarpur Sindh during Eid.  A two-member committee has been formed to assist the family in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th,  2011.