PM sees coalition intact

DUBAI - Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday reached Dubai from Kuala Lumpur to discuss key issues with PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and other senior party leaders in a bid to devise agenda for the crucial meeting with PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif in the next few days.
PPP Co-Chairperson and senior party leaders including Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah and Qamaruzzaman Kaira along with the UAE officials received the Prime Minister here at Dubai International Airport.
Prime Minister Gillani and Asif Zardari, according to Minister for Labor and Manpower, Khurshid Shah, reached Dubai to express their grief and sorrow with the Dubai ruler over the death of his brother. However, reliable sources said that PPP leadership would also undergo prolonged consultations here to devise the strategy for the forthcoming meeting with Mian Nawaz Sharif.
The sources said that once the party leadership reached understanding on the contentious issues of judges’ restoration and President Pervez Musharraf’s future, a final touch would be given to the talks’ plan for negotiations with PML-N leadership.
The negotiations, likely to take place in London, between PPP and PML-N, the two major parties in the ruling coalition, were highly important in a sense that they would not only determine the fate of the ruling coalition but also set a direction for the country’s politics in the coming days.
A source said that UAE leadership, which was also one of the international guarantors of the much-talked-about ‘national reconciliation’ along with US, UK and Saudi Arabia, was also like to sound a piece of advice to PPP on future of Pakistan’s ruling set up.
He said that the UAE leaders were likely to urge the PPP leaders to show flexibility on vital issues of judges’ restoration and the President and to avoid conflict.
The source said that the same word of caution was also likely to be sent to PML-N leaders by the UAE leadership that wanted end to Pakistan’s current political crisis as soon as possible because of years’ old friendly ties between the two brotherly Muslim states.
Agencies add: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday that the government was taking all its partners along and there were no differences within the ruling alliance. He was briefly talking to reporters here after a meeting with PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
The overall political situation in Pakistan also came under discussion during the meeting. Information Minister Sherry Rehman, Minister for Labour and Manpower, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah and Minister for Kashmir Affairs, Qamar Zaman Kaira were also present at the meeting.