Coalition to be kept intact, says Zardari

ISLAMABAD â€" Pakistan People’s Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari spent lengthy hours on Sunday discussing with Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani and his cabinet members to keep the four-party coalition government intact and hammer out the irritants marring the government’s smooth functioning.
Zardari also held one-on-one meeting with Gilani. On the occasion, the Prime Minister briefed him on his recent meetings with ANP President Asfandyar Wali and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who had also recently met with Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai.
The sources privy to the development informed TheNation that during the meeting, which lasted for well over seven hours, host of issues including cabinet expansion, appointment of Chairmen and Parliamentary Secretaries for the National Assembly Standing Committees, concerns of ANP and JUI-F with the coalition government, strategy about the ongoing military operation in Tribal Areas and standoff on the judges reinstatement were discussed.
The sources further said that Asif Zardari expressed his resolve that the ruling coalition would be kept intact at all costs and he would himself talk to PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif. He also said that the judges issue would be resolved amicably through negotiations.
It was further decided in the meeting that the ministries vacated by the PML-N would be kept open and another attempt would be made to bring the PML-N ministers back to the Federal Cabinet.
The sources closely monitoring the development on political horizon said that in this connection JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had left for London to facilitate some middle way for the two main ruling coalition partners, PPP and PML-N, entangled in the judges reinstatement issue.