PPP rapprochement bid: Zardari imposes gag order on party MPs

Benazir probe report not presented in the Central Executive Committee meeting.


Express December 27, 2010
Asif Zaradri. PHOTO: EXPRESS

LARKANA: President Asif Ali Zardari put a gag order on his party’s lawmakers on Sunday in an attempt to lower political temperatures and stop a shaky coalition from crumbling.

Zardari, who is co-chairperson of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, called upon his party’s leaders to not make any “provocative statements” against their political foes. The PPP leader also renewed his party’s pledge to work with other political forces in a spirit of accommodation.

The appeal comes days after the Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) pulled out of the coalition and the Sindh home minister brought the PPP’s relations with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to a precipice with a venom-spouting speech.

The beleaguered government is now trying hard to win back the MQM to keep the coalition intact.

The PPP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) met at the President House in Naudero a day before the third death anniversary of its slain leader Benazir Bhutto. Benazir was killed in a gun and suicide attack outside Rawalpindi’s Liaquat Bagh on December 27, 2007. Britain’s Scotland Yard and a UN commission have investigated the high-profile assassination. And now the government is investigating the issue anew.

“The investigation report could not be presented in the CEC meeting because of the absence of PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,” Federal Law Minister Babar Awan told the media after the meeting.

However, he added that the CEC would be convened again after Bilawal Bhutto’s return to the country. And the investigation report would be laid before it.

The JUI-F walked out of the coalition government earlier this month after one of its ministers in the federal cabinet – Azam Swati – was fired by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for engaging in a verbal duel with another cabinet colleague  Hamid Saeed Kazmi. “The CEC also discussed this issue,” Awan said without elaborating.

The PPP is also hoping to win back the JUI-F, albeit its two earlier efforts failed to address Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s grievances. And Awan said that the ruling party would follow a policy of reconciliation for the country’s solidarity and prosperity.

Asked about the MQM’s reservations, Awan said the party had left the matter for President Zardari to decide “who is like a godfather for all.”

The minister also said that President Zardari would unveil a future roadmap for democracy in his address at a public rally on Monday (today).

The president would also assess the performance of federal ministers and make changes in the cabinet accordingly. Awan revealed that changes would be made in the cabinet in the very beginning of next year.

The minister said that the ruling party was making preparations for local body polls.

Among those who attended the CEC meeting were Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, federal ministers Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Rehman Malik, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar and Babar Awan, presidential spokesperson Farhatullah Babar and President Zardari’s daughters Asifa and Bakhtawar.

Senior PPP leaders Sherry Rehman, Safdar Abbasi, Naheed Khan and Aitzaz Ahsan were conspicuous by their absence.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2010.

COMMENTS (4)

Usman | 13 years ago | Reply Indeed Zardari is "like a godfather for all." He reminds me of Don Corleone from the movie The Godfather.
Yaldrum | 13 years ago | Reply Well Mr. Zardari dont have to worry about MQM for that matter JUI-F leaving coalition such parties never exist out side power and their record proves that. Its beyond amusing when Mr. Altaf asks his party members if MQM should leave coalition which will not happen in a million years.
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