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Zardari asks Nawaz Sharif to rejoin

President-elect Asif Ali Zardari urged former premier Nawaz Sharif during a meeting on Monday to rejoin the ruling coalition but the Pakistan Muslim League-N chief expressed his inability, a PML-N leader said.

  • By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
  • Published: 23:49 September 8, 2008
  • Gulf News

Islamabad: President-elect Asif Ali Zardari urged former premier Nawaz Sharif during a meeting on Monday to rejoin the ruling coalition but the Pakistan Muslim League-N chief expressed his inability, a PML-N leader said.

PML-N chief spokesman Ahsan Iqbal said the PML-N leaders called on the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman and president-elect to congratulate him on his election as the head of state for next five years.

He said while Zardari wished to see PML-N back in the coalition, Nawaz Sharif called for unconditional restoration of all the deposed judges.

The PML-N chief also asked for prompt steps to repeal the 7th Amendment inserted into the constitution by former president Pervez Musharraf in order to create right balance between the powers of the parliament and the presidency.

Iqbal said the PML-N leader had assured Zardari that despite sitting on the opposition benches the party would play a constructive role and remaining within the system continue to extend support to the PPP-led government.

First meeting

The threats to the PML-N rule in Punjab by PPP provincial governor Salman Taseer also came under discussion during the meeting, which was the first between the two top political leaders since the PML-N quit the coalition in August.

The PML-N spokesman said Nawaz Sharif was going to London where his wife was under treatment and he would therefore not be able to attend Zardari's swearing-in ceremony to be held at the presidential palace on Tuesday.

However, other PML-N figures including Shahbaz Sharif would attend the ceremony to "show solidarity with the democratic process which is moving forward."

He said it would not in any way mean that the party was giving any legitimacy to the "controversial chief justice" Abdul Hameed Dogar, who would administer the oath to Zardari.

Dogar was installed as chief justice by Musharraf when he imposed emergency rule as then army chief and sacked dozens of judges.

PML-N meanwhile announced it has formally applied to the Speaker of the National Assembly to nominate its parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan as opposition leader.

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