ISLAMABAD - The central leadership of PPP has vowed to uphold the supremacy of the Parliament and expressed determination to resist any move aimed at infringing upon the legislative powers of the elected representatives remaining within the precincts of law and constitution.
The meeting of select leaders of the party was held at Awan-i-Sadr on Tuesday, jointly chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, which also decided that the party would gear up preparations for the upcoming general elections to be called at scheduled time in consultation with the coalition partners.
Those who were present during the meeting included among others PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, former premier Yousuf Raza Gillani, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Syed Naveed Qamar, Rehman Malik, Senator Farooq Hamid Naek, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Mian Raza Rabbani, Jahangir Bader and Sardar Ali Khan.
According to the presidential spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, Law Minister Senator Farooq H Naek briefed the meeting about various legal challenges and the strategy adopted to confront them. The meeting expressed satisfaction with the strategy and vowed to resist within the bounds of law and the Constitution the emergence of new centres of legislative power other than the elected Parliament.
“Law making is the sacred responsibility of legislature, which will not be abandoned at any cost,” it said.
Sources aware of the deliberations of the meeting informed The Nation that the PPP would not enter into clash with superior judiciary and fight their case remaining within the legal and constitutional limits.
The party leadership expressed satisfaction over the strategy devised by the legal team regarding the NRO implementation case fixed in the apex court for today (Wednesday), wherein the court had directed the prime minister to come up with his position on writing of letter to Swiss authorities for reopening of graft cases against President Zardari.
Sources informed that government would try to buy more time from the apex court in the case about which they were quite optimistic to secure. But the sources confirmed to The Nation that the government would not write letter to Swiss authorities come what may and would try to drag the case as long as they could using all the legal and constitutional measures.
Sources said there was not plan of confrontation with the apex judiciary as in the previous meeting of coalition partners held under the chair of President Zardari a few days back none of the coalition partner was in support of confrontation with the superior judiciary, so the PPP could not go all alone for any adventurism in this connection.
It was decided in the coalition partners meeting that government must not enter into confrontation with the Supreme Court of Pakistan as any deadlock and clash between the institutions would provide an opening to some ‘third force’ to intervene and send the whole political dispensation packing, the sources further informed.
The Presidential spokesman giving details about the deliberations of the meeting informed that the meeting discussed current situation in the country with focus on preparation for elections, overcoming energy crisis and the legal challenges before the government.
He said that the president during the meeting called upon the party leadership to gear up preparations for the future elections which the president emphasised would be held on time in accordance with the constitutional and legal dictates and in consultation with coalition partners. He said that the Election Commission had announced completion of electoral rolls which were on display and advised the party leadership to ensure that every MNA, MPA and ticket holder thoroughly checked the voters’ lists so that no one was left out and report any discrepancy to ECP for rectification.
Zardari said the PPP believed in the power of the people and was never shy of reverting to the people for endorsement of its policies. He said that the Party believes in free, fair and transparent elections for which it was important that the electoral rolls should be free of errors and no eligible voter was left out of the list.
 The President said that holding of next general elections on time at the end of the tenure by the present assemblies would be another important milestone in the nation’s journey towards strengthening of the democracy and further strengthening of the political process. The President also asked that party leaders should reach out to the masses and address their problems
Spokesperson said that Minister for Water & Power Ch. Ahmed Mukhtar briefed the meeting about the energy situation in the country. Briefing the meeting, the Minister said that in view of the critical nature of the power issue and the problems faced by the people, the repair work of the high voltage pylons in Muzaffargarh was done on war footing and the disrupted power restored to the national grid. He said that with necessary financial resources being put in place for the fuel and expected rise in water level of the dams, the power generation would further improve.
The meeting was informed about the progress with regards to implementation of the cabinet decision about Zero duty on the import of Solar panels. He said that solar-based energy would significantly reduce the pressure on the power sector. In addition to this work on small dams in various parts of the country was also being done on priority basis.
The meeting reposed full confidence in the leadership of the president and the prime minister.