Zardari outlines terms for coalition Govt
By Saad Saud

ISLAMABAD—The party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto will try to form a coalition government without the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (PML), Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won the most seats in the National Assembly in a national election on Monday, while President Pervez Musharraf’s friends in the PML trailed a distant third.
“For now, the decision of the party is that we are not interested in any of those people who are part and parcel of the last government,” Zardari told a news conference in Islamabad, adding the PPP would try to persuade the party of Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister whom Musharraf overthrew in 1999, to join the PPP in power.
The Co-Chairperson, Pakistan People’s Party, Asif Ali Zardari, has convened a joint meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee and its Federal Council in Islamabad on Tuesday evening (Feb 19). The party’s well placed sources said that the joint meeting will consider the formation of federal and provincial governments after winning majority of seats in the National Assembly and Sindh.
Sources said that the meeting being held in Zardari House will take important decisions regarding the nomination of a candidate for the slot of prime minister in the centre and chief minister, Sindh. The PPP’s supreme bodies will also weigh its coalitions with the PML-N to form government in Punjab and with ANP to form governemnt in NWFP.
Visiting US Delegation of Senators on Tuesday met co-chairman PPP Asif Ali Zardari and discussed with him matters pertaining to recent elections and setting up of future Government. The meeting lasted for quite a while in US Embassy where the visiting US Senators met Asif Ali Zardari and discussed with him host of issues. On the occasion was also present US Ambassador Anne W Peterson. The US Senators expressed their heartfelt condolence with Asif Ali Zardari regarding the martyrdom of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto. They were of the view that BB had always worked in the best interests of the country and struggle for democracy. They further suggested Zardari to form an Alliance with Moderate Forces so that a democratic Government is established in the country.
The renowned leader of PPPP, Chaudhry Aitazaz Ahsan wants President Musharraf to resign in face of the victorious outcome of general elections in favor of PPPP. Talking to private TV channel, the barrister declared that PPPP being the major victorious party has the mandate to form government in consensus with equally successful PML (N).
He termed the only other available option of working with PML (Q) as equally impossible in light of (PML-Q) being already labeled as responsible for murder of Benazir Bhutto. He cautioned that should PPPP and PML (N) fail to cooperate, a new chain of crisis and tussle would ensue, developing a situation like that of 1988, with PPPP forming a government in Federation, and PML (N) in Punjab, causing friction within 6-month time.