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PPP, PML-Q may sign deal today; PM to attend meeting

Top leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) are expected to again meet at the Presidency on Sunday to formally put their seal on the power-sharing agreement, sources in the two parties told Dawn here on Saturday.
The two parties have decided to sign the agreement without seeking — even as a formality — the approval of their respective
highest executive bodies.
But there was no immediate word about when a formal induction of PML-Q members in the federal cabinet will take place, although there was speculation that it could happen as early as on Monday before the prime minister leaves for a visit to France on Tuesday.
Farhatullah Babar, the spokesman for President Asif Ali Zardari, neither confirmed nor denied Sunday’s meeting, but said the PML-Q leaders had requested for a meeting with the President on the same day.
On the other hand, a source in the PML-Q said party leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and his cousin Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi would present the final draft of the agreement in their meeting with President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani on Sunday.
The draft, he said, had been prepared in the light of discussions that had been going on between the two parties for the past four months, particularly the meetings held on Thursday and Friday.
The source claimed that the PPP had agreed to create the post of deputy prime minister without amending the constitution and that it could be done either by an executive order or by amending the rules of business of the government.
In the Friday’s meeting, which was also attended by PML-Q parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Faisal Saleh Hayat who had opposed the deal in the past, the two sides had decided to sign a written agreement that would also be made public. “Yes, the agreement will be made public and there will be a public announcement of the alliance between the two parties,” Mr Hayat told Dawn on Saturday.
Mr Hayat said all reports about the number of ministries and portfolios his party was expected to get in the new set-up were based on speculations. He, however, claimed that the two sides had almost had an agreement on a formula under which ministries would be distributed among the coalition partners.
Replying to a question, he claimed that the two sides had agreed to create the new office of the deputy prime minister and that legal experts of the two parties, whom he did not identify, had been discussing ways how to do it. He said one view was that there would be a need to amend the constitution for this purpose whereas another group believed this could be done merely by changing the rules of business as, he said, had been done in India and Britain.
It is interesting to note that while the PML-Q has been constantly giving out claimed details of its talks with the PPP leadership, the other side has remained tight-lipped.

12:14 | |

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