PPP asks Sharif’s party to rejoin cabinet

Pakistan People's Party has asked his PML(N) to rejoin the cabinet, two months after its ministers quit.

Ahead of crucial talks with former premier Nawaz Sharif, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party has asked his PML(N) to rejoin the cabinet, two months after its ministers quit following differences over reinstatement of judges sacked by President Prevez Musharraf last year.

“It is a crucial meeting for the PPP and the government. The party wants the Pakistan Muslim League to join the cabinet. We are sure that issues will be resolved,” said Mohammed Akram Farooq, PPP Chairman in the UAE, after Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani met party chairman Asif Ali Zardari in Dubai to discuss political developments in the country.

PPP leaders said they discussed the issues plaguing the coalition government and explored ways to resolve them, especially the row over sacked judges and the lawyers’ stir.

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Sherry Rahman, Information Minister, Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah, Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis and other PPP party leaders are in Dubai to take part in the meeting.

The prime minister reached Dubai yesterday from Malaysia where he attended the sixth Summit of the Development Eight (D-8) countries.

Zardari, who had arrived in Dubai last week to meet his family, is scheduled to meet Sharif in London in the next few days to bridge their differences amid fresh acrimony between the ruling coalition partners.

The PML-N has pulled its ministers out of the federal cabinet in May after the government failed to meet two self-imposed deadlines for restoring the judges.

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The two former arch-rivals, which joined hands after the February 18 polls, have openly differed on the issue of Musharraf ouster. Sharif has said his party was not taken into confidence before the government launched a crackdown against militants in the north-western tribal belt and hiked petroleum prices.

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