Looks like hes not very keen on joining forces with the Qatil League.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
**LONDON/ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday his party would keep supporting the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in Punjab and no new ministers would be inducted into the federal government in place of the PML-N ministers who had resigned.
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Zardari said the Punjab government could not hold together without the PPP. He said they would wait for the comeback of the friends from the PML-N in the cabinet, keeping vacant the cabinet seats that the party had quitted.
**The PPP leader said impeachment of President Pervez Musharraf would be possible after getting a two-thirds majority. He said he was not willing to opt for seeking cooperation of the Q-League.
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Meanwhile, in a statement PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the PML-N’s decision to resign from the federal cabinet was only a pause in the process and not a break in the restoration of the judges and strengthening of parliament.
He said the decision would weaken neither the determination to strengthen the coalition nor the resolve to restore the sacked judges. He said the ministries vacated by the PML-N would not be filled and the dialogue would be pursued to resolve the issue amicably and in a spirit of accommodation and mutual trust.
However, it may not be possible to keep vacant for long the office of the finance minister as this was the budget season and there were pressing economic issues that called for the effective presence a full time finance minister.
He said the PPP welcomed the decision of Nawaz Sharif to run in the by-elections and added the PPP would not field its candidate against the PML-N Quaid. **He said the PPP had also decided not to withdraw its support to the coalition government in Punjab.
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The spokesman said the party still believed that the issue with the coalition partner would be resolved amicably and the judges restored. The effects of the ‘martial law’ of November 3 and the illegal sacking of the judges should be undone in a legal and lawful manner.
After it had been agreed upon that the sacked judges would be reinstated without affecting the present judges, he said, the issue to be addressed was how best to do it. Different opinions were expressed in the committee of legal experts set up for the purpose after the meetings in Dubai, he said.
By restoring the Nov 2 judges and also keeping the present judges, he said, the number of the judges in the SC would increase to more than 25. However, under the Judges Act 1997, he added, the number of SC judges could not exceed 17.
He said it was a predominant opinion that the implementation of any parliamentary resolution would require an amendment to the Judges Act 1997. He said the prime minister could not lawfully increase the number of judges of the apex court from 17 to more than 25 merely by issuing an executive order. “It can be done through an act of parliament,” he added.
Farhatullah said the steps taken by President Musharraf on Nov 3 were wrong constitutionally, politically and morally. Therefore, the sacked judges had to be restored and the constitutional amendments, decisions and orders made after Nov 3 be reversed if not indemnified by parliament. The only question was how best to do it, he added.
It was important that correct and lawful procedures were adopted to undo a grave wrong, he said. He said the PPP co-chairman would return to Pakistan in the next two days and the dialogue with the PML-N would resume.