LAHORW – PPP has refused to support PML-N in Punjab and decided inprinciple to sit in the opposition in the Punjab Assembly,” former primeminister Yousuf Raza Gilani of the PPP said, giving a blow to the ShahbazSharif’s aspirations of ruling Punjab yet again.
Mr Gilani is heading a six-member PPP committee formed to contact the otherparties for formation of governments in the Centre and Punjab.
He said the PPP succeeded in persuading other parties to join to theparliament as its prime objective was to strengthen democracy. “We are notkeen to form the government. Despite concerns over the transparency of thepolls, we do not want to let democracy weaken. During talks with otherparties like the PML-N we did not demand anything. In the Punjab Assembly,where the PPP has six seats, we did not prefer to go in some kind ofarrangement with any party and decided to sit in the opposition,” theformer premier said.
Interestingly in the Centre, the PPP, the PML-N, the MMA, the ANP and otherparties have decided to field candidates jointly for the slots of primeminister, speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly. According tothe decision unanimously taken by these parties, the candidate for primeminister office will be from the PML-N, speaker from the PPP and deputyspeaker from the MMA.
The PML-N, which is facing disappointment in wooing the independentMPAs-elect in Punjab, with no support of the PPP, has virtually bleakchances to compete with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf backed candidates fortop slots of chief minister, speaker and deputy speaker. The PTI claims tohave achieved the required number to form the government in Punjab.
Shahbaz Sharif, who over a week ago had called on the PPP’s senior leaderand former governor Makhdoom Ahmad Mahmood to seek his party’s support information of government in Punjab, seems to have quit efforts in thisregard. So far not a single independent MPA-elect out of 28 announcedjoining the PML-N, showing its complete failure in this respect.