PPP ministers pack up in Punjab

LAHORE-Though PPP has not yet made any formal announcement to sit on Opposition benches in Punjab
Assembly, yet its ministers have started the process of vacating their official residences, a clear indication that it
would now take up Opposition role in Punjab.
As a prelude to future plans of the PPP, Punjab Senior Minister Raja Riaz vacated his official residence on
Monday, though he is yet to surrender his official car and protocol to the concerned department.
It has been learnt that other PPP ministers are also in the process of packing up, as they are planning to shift to
their private houses in the City in anticipation of a decision by party leadership to surrender Punjab to the
PML-N.
Since the restoration of Shahbaz Sharif government and his cabinet on March 31, as a result of interim court
orders, the PPP ministers are not attending their offices as per party instructions, but enjoying other perks and
privileges to which they are entitled as ministers. But now they are preparing to pack up with Raja Riaz
becoming the first minister to vacate his official residence.
Talking to The Nation, Punjab Minister for Finance Tanvir Ashraf Kaira said on Monday that PPP ministers were
waiting for a nod from partys top leadership either to keep or relinquish their ministerial slots. We would
definitely vacate official residences in a few days if party leadership decides to quit coalition government in
Punjab, though we are entitled to keep residences and cars for 15 days after submitting resignations, Kaira
maintained
According to PPP sources, a formal announcement to quit Punjab government is likely to come in a couple of
days after a meeting between President Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. The President is back
from his China visit and likely to meet Gilani in a few days to formally announce partys dissociation from Punjab
government, the sources further said.
The PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has been authorised by partys Punjab Parliamentary party to take final
decision in this regard.
Earlier, PPP had made its remaining part of the Punjab government conditional to re-joining of federal
government by PML-N, which has recently declined PPPs offer to become part of central government.
President Zardari chaired two meetings of partys Punjab Parliamentary party and majority of legislators
supported the idea of sitting in the Opposition. Prime Minister Gilani also chaired one such meeting and got the
same response from party MPAs.