New Prime Minister: Coalition partners repose faith in PPP, again

Prime candidate for the prime minister slot will be announced by the PPP at 11am on Friday.


Web Desk June 21, 2012
New Prime Minister: Coalition partners repose faith in PPP, again

ISLAMABAD: All coalition partners of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have once again reposed their faith in President Asif Ali Zardari and his party to nominate a candidate for the slot of prime minister, Express News reported.

The decision was taken at a meeting of coalition partners at the Presidency on Thursday evening to decide which of the nominees who had filed their nomination papers for the prime minister’s slot would be the prime candidate for the position after the initial candidate on which the coalition had decided upon, Makhdoom Shahbuddin, had warrants issued against him.

An Anti-Narcotics Force magistrate issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Shahabuddin's alleged involvement in the ephedrine case.

Senior PPP leader Khursheed Shah will announce the ruling coalition's nominee for the PM slot at 11am on Friday.

Those who were present in the meeting included Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Chaudhry Pervez Ilahi,  Dr Farooq Sattar, Mir Israrullah Zehri, Afrasiab Khattak, Munir Khan Aurakzai, Babar Ghouri, Hameedullah Jan Afridi, Haider Abbas Rizvi, Senator Abbas Khan Afridi, Mohammad Jadim Mangrio and Syed Khursheed Shah. Vice Chairman PPP and former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was  also present.

Raja Parvez Ashraf finalised?

Sources told Express News that the name of Raja Pervez Ashraf for the prime minister's slot had been finalised in the coalition members meeting at the Presidency late on Thursday.

Some parliamentary members belonging to the PPP said that they did not agree with the choice of Ashraf as the premier.

They added that they were not happy with the way affairs had been handled after former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had been disqualified. They told Express News correspondent Waqar Satti that their reservations had been made known to senior party leader Khursheed Shah. They warned that unless their reservations were not paid heed to, they may not vote in favour of Ashraf, or may even choose to remain absent from the Friday evening Assembly session.

Earlier on Thursday, at least five members of the National Assembly filed their nomination papers to contest for the seat of prime minister.

Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Raja Pervez Ashraf filed their nomination papers for the PPP.

In addition to these candidates, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PML-N’s Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi have also filed their nomination papers.

COMMENTS (14)

K B Kale | 12 years ago | Reply

The current drama was triggered by current CJP when he declared the NRO of ex-President which was not objected to by then sitting CJP unconstitutional. Why should he be allowed to do that? Many self-exiled political leaders returned o Pakistan to participate in 2008 general election only because of protection the NRO provided. In this situation, Justice Chaudhry declaring it as unconstitutional is in itself an unconstitutional act. All Pakistanis should understand this & 'persusde' their CJP to recall his unconstitutional ruling & recall PM Gilani to save their democracy.

Yusuf Jan | 12 years ago | Reply

I have come to the conclusion that the real culprits (besides the PPP) are the Coalition Partners!

There is absolutely no justification for the coalition partners (PML-Q, MQM, ANP, and any other party) to standby and support the PPP in electing another PM and allowing PPP to continue ridiculing the Supreme Court. There is no justification for coalition partners to allow the nation to lose another 8 - 10 months of precious time, energy, and resources towards nation building instead of this dehumanizing tragedy of corruption and plunder.

I am extremely disappointed and now firmly believe that the coalition parties are the real culprits - they DO NOT have Pakistan's best interests in mind.

I urge/request the people of Pakistan (specifically the members/followers/workers of the coalition parties) to be OBJECTIVE! and, raise their voices in their respective parties and ask their leadership why they continue to support this government? Why is this government being allowed to completely destroy the very fabric of our Pakistani existence?

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