Zardari to meet PPP MPs yet again

Zardari calls third meeting in less than a week to chalk out plan to deal with challlenges the party is facing.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has called a meeting of Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) parliamentarians on Monday - for a third time in less than a week - in order to chalk out a plan to deal with the challenges the party is currently facing.

The agenda of the meeting is likely to be a proposal that the parliament - the National Assembly and the Senate - and provincial legislatures should adopt resolutions to support the president in the face of an anticipated court decision against him.

The government has already taken a position that no case against the president can be reopened either in a Pakistani or any international court under article 248 of the constitution.

“This can be one of the points to be discussed in the meeting,” said a PPP leader but didn’t appear sure whether the party can take such a resolution through the Punjab provincial assembly where opposition party the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is in majority.

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has already announced that his party would stand by the Supreme Court in the event of any decision against President Zardari.

Dissidents

The PPP top leadership has also invited Senator Safdar Abbasi to attend the meeting. He is expected to participate in it, according to party insiders.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2010.