FAISALABAD: Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza has warned PML-N of “consequences” if the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is forced out of the Punjab coalition.
Speaking at a public gathering in Lyari on Sunday, Mirza asserted that the PML-N was hatching conspiracies to eliminate the PPP from Punjab. He warned the PML-N that any undemocratic step against the PPP government would result in anarchy in the country.
Mirza’s warning follows statements by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who said February 22 will be the final day of talks with the PPP on the PML-N’s 10-point agenda.
Talking to the media in Faisalabad on Sunday, Shahbaz said the PML-N will decide on February 22 if it wants to have the PPP as a coalition partner in the Punjab government. Party chief Nawaz Sharif had earlier ruled out giving more time to the PPP to implement the 10-point reforms agenda.
PML-N, the main opposition group, has been engaged in negotiations with government interlocutors on economic and governance reforms linked to a 10-point agenda it had given to the PPP. Nawaz Sharif has given a 45-day deadline to implement the agenda, starting from January 10. Failure to deliver on the economic cum political agenda may lead to the parting of ways for both parties in Punjab.
Tension in Punjab
In an earlier report in The Express Tribune, the PML-N had refused to propose two members from its party to be part of a committee to discuss the 19-point agenda put forward by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) regarding governance in Punjab.
The agenda – presented to the Punjab government by the PPP in seeming retaliation to a 10-point agenda given to it by the PML-N in the centre – was termed ‘useless’ and a ‘waste of time’ by Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.
The PML-N had to announce its members on February 15, but Sanaullah has now categorically refused to implement the PPP’s agenda in Punjab. When contacted, Raja Riaz refused to comment on the issue.
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