President bypasses Prime Minister to woo allies

ISLAMABAD - In a bid to be on the same page with the coalition partners, President Asif Ali Zardari accelerated his direct political contacts as he dined with an ANP delegation at the Presidency here on Friday.
“PPP as the largest political force in the country possesses the will and capacity to accommodate all political forces with divergent manifestos on the same platform for the sake of strengthening democracy and democratic institutions in the country,” Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar quoted the President as addressing the ANP delegation.
Rather than depending on Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the President has preferred to personally woo the coalition partners moving away over critical issues like the NRO, and the constitutional reforms, well-placed sources told TheNation.
ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan led his party parliamentarians’ 17-member delegation. At the same time the PPP side included Qamar Zaman Kaira, Raza Rabbani, Fauzia Wahab amongst others.
According to the Spokesman, the President believed that the experiment of coalition government in Pakistan was gaining strength, which was a very positive development for the growth of democracy. He said that if coalition partners disagreed on a certain issue, it did not mean that they could not co-exist. He said it was encouraging that political forces in the country agreed to disagree among themselves and had matured enough not to rock the system. For strengthening the federation, the PPP has finalised a package for empowering Balochistan and the Prime Minister had briefed him today, the President told the ANP delegation.