All hopes of reaching a likely breakthrough between the government and the country’s largest opposition party with regards to a caretaker setup faded after Nawaz Sharif politely “turned down” the president’s request to hold a one-on-one meeting at Raiwind.
Sources in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) revealed that the party chief has politely turned down the request after President Asif Ali Zardari expressed his desire to visit Sharif’s Raiwind residence during his stay in Lahore.
“We have respectfully turned down the request for a meeting between President Zardari and Nawaz Sharif,” sources in the PML-N told The Express Tribune on Sunday.
“It has been respectfully conveyed that Sharif cannot meet President Zardari,” they said.
However, President’s spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar stated that no meeting between President Zardari and Nawaz Sharif was planned or scheduled. “Therefore the question of cancellation does not arise.”
According to media reports, the president wanted to offer his condolences to the PML-N chief over the death of his brother, Abbas Sharif.
Currently, President Zardari is staying at his newly-built Bilawal House in Lahore and is to oversee the party position ahead of the coming general elections.
Though Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Law Minister Farooq H Naek and some leaders of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) called on President Zardari in Lahore, President’s spokesperson dispelled media reports of any political activity on part of the president.
The clarification from the spokesperson possibly came in the backdrop of a written assurance given by President Zardari in the dual office case that he would quit political activities at the Presidency.
The meeting, which has now been cancelled due to a possible trust deficit between the two parties, was being viewed by observers as a major breakthrough to the procedural deadlock in appointing a caretaker setup.
Sources in the PML-N revealed that the PML-N chief would start an internal consultation process from today (Monday) that is likely to last for a week with meetings scheduled on a daily basis.
Though both the government and opposition have not yet engaged in a consultation process as per the Constitution, both have held several informal rounds over the issue with the opposition demanding a role in appointment of all the caretakers — federal and provincial.
A senior PML-N leader said that his party would engage in negotiations with the government after taking other parties in the opposition into confidence over the caretaker prime minister and more.
Responding to a question, he said that the chances of a final decision over the caretaker names by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were limited. “We want consultation but not merely on the appointment of the caretaker prime minister,” he added.
According to the scheme devised by the Constitution for appointment of the caretaker government, the leader of opposition in the National Assembly and the premier will nominate a caretaker setup through the process of consultation. If they fail to reach an agreement, Article 224A will be invoked which says: “In case the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in the outgoing National Assembly do not agree on any person to be appointed as the caretaker prime minister within three days of the dissolution of the National Assembly, they shall forward two nominees each to a committee to be immediately constituted by the speaker of the National Assembly, comprising eight members of the outgoing National Assembly, or the Senate, or both, having equal representation from the treasury and the opposition, to be nominated by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, respectively”.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 11th, 2013.