Sharif says president's office plotting to destroy coalition

Dubai: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif yesterday lamented that the president's office had been reduced to a conspiracy coterie and spoke of the need to rid the country of the "dictator".

Speaking to reporters on his arrival at Dubai International Airport early last morning, Sharif hinted that the constitutional package envisaged by the joint committee of the coalition government also included resolutions pertaining to the future of the president.

Sharif reached Dubai along with senior party leaders including Chaudhry Nisar Ali, Khawaja Asif and Khawaja Harris to hold discussions with PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, Law Minister Farooq Naik and Interior Affairs Advisor Rehman Malik and finalise issues relating to the reinstatement of deposed judges of the Supreme Court and the future of President Pervez Musharraf.

The president's office had been trying to create divisions between the coalition government partners, a senior PML-N leader told Gulf News.

"The party leaders are in Dubai to clarify issues and ensure the implementation of the agreement between the two parties," he said.

Zardari, who reached Dubai on Friday, was earlier scheduled to return to Pakistan on Sunday but extended his stay in a bid to ensure the continuity of talks with PML-N leaders in view of the April 30 deadline for reinstatement of judges as per the mutual agreement by the two parties.

"There are no differences in the coalition government on the issue of reinstatement of judges but there are different recommendations on doing it," Sharif told reporters.

He reiterated the PML-N stand that the deposed judges be reinstated as per the agreed deadline.

Strong mandate

On fears that constitutional powers vested in the president under Article 58-2b of the constitution empowered him to dissolve the assemblies if he apprehended any step to curtail his power, Sharif said: "Time has changed now and it will not happen because we have a strong mandate from the public."

Meanwhile, Zardari met a delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in Dubai and reached an agreement on a power-sharing formula. The relationship between the two parties had soured after an incident in which former Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim was roughed up.

Sources said that eight MQM parliamentarians were to be made ministers and five of them would become advisers in the coalition government in the Sindh province.