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May 13, 2008
PML-N
Ministers Resign from Pakistan Cabinet
By Muhammad Najeeb
Islamabad
A day after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif
announced his party's withdrawal from the cabinet, nine federal
ministers of the party Tuesday submitted their resignations over
disagreement on the issue of sacked judges.
The resignations come six weeks after the PML-N joined the coalition
government led by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The ministers
took oath of office March 31.
A close aide of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said he has not
accepted the resignations and a final decision would be taken after
PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari returns in a couple of days from
London.
The ministers met Prime Minister Gillani at the Prime Minister's
Secretariat, where they had lunch with him and submitted their
resignations.
The two major coalition partners failed to reach an agreement on the
mode of restoration of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf
after he declared emergency Nov 3, 2007.
PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the two mainstream parties
cannot afford to part ways at a time when the country faces economic
and social issues of great magnitude, including unprecedented fuel
and food prices. "But we were left with no other option," Khan told
IANS.
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif Monday announced that his ministers are
withdrawing from the cabinet but the party will continue to support
the coalition government.
Sharif pulled his ministers out after the failure of three days of
talks in London with Zardari on the reinstatement of about 60 judges
who were summarily dismissed by Musharraf.
The break-up has, however, been without acrimony with both sides
promising this would not push them into confrontation.
Zardari told a private TV channel his party would not let the PML-N-led
coalition government in Punjab become unstable. He is hopeful of
bringing the PML-N back to the cabinet through negotiations after
his return from London.
Sharif has also assured that, despite bidding farewell to the
federal cabinet, his party would sit on the treasury benches and
give issue-based support to the government.
A PML-N leader said the talks failed because the PPP leadership was,
in fact, opposed to the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar
Chaudhry.
May 13, 2008
IANS | Top
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