News
Monday, July 16, 2012
PML-N to consult all opp parties on caretaker setup* Refutes media reports of secret meetings with PPP
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will take all the opposition parties on board to form a caretaker setup before general elections as it had done on the appointment of the chief election commissioner (CEC).
Talking Daily Times on Sunday, PML-N’s Senator Pervez Rasheed dubbed all the media reports of secret talks with the ruling party over the caretaker setup baseless, being spread by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to ease the mounting pressure on it in the backdrop of judiciary’s insistence to follow its orders.
Rasheed questioned why the party would hold secret meetings on this issue when being the largest opposition party in parliament it had the right to have its say in the caretaker government before the next generation elections.
“Secret meetings are held to secure personal benefits and PML-N has no intention to hold talks for this purpose,” Rasheed said.
The capital was abuzz with the rumours on Sunday that both parties held a secret meeting on the caretaker government and some news channel even reported that both have reached a consensus in this regard.
The PML-N senator called these reports “planted news” by the PPP to save its skin because the party is feeling the heat of judiciary, which has called for obeying its orders.
“On the other hand, they are trying to scare us about intervention of third force,” Rasheed said, adding that PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has a very clear policy on it and has declared that any unconstitutional step would be resisted.
He said it was an old habit of the PPP to resort to such tactics whenever it fell pressure from any quarter.
“We have no plan to hold such secret meetings and would go for discussing it in parliament. It would be on the floor of the House and its parliamentary committees,” Rasheed said.
“We will consult with Imran Khan, Jamaat-e-Islami, Rashool Bux Paleejo, Aftab Sherpao, Akhtar Mengal and other Baloch political figures to bring all of them on the same page,” Rasheed said.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk