By IANS,
Islamabad : In an indication that the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) could return to the ruling federal coalition, its leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has accepted an invitation to a banquet President Asif Ali Zardari will host on Monday.
“It is learnt that President Zardari and Mr Sharif will hold a separate meeting before or after the banquet to discuss important issues, including the Kerry-Lugar bill and the National Reconciliation Ordinance. They are also like to discuss a proposal of reviving their reconciliation on the basis of the Charter of Democracy,” Dawn reported Friday.
“Issues relating to the 17th Amendment and the balance of power between the president and the prime minister are also likely to be discussed, besides the military operation under way in South Waziristan,” the newspaper added.
The banquet is being hosted for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Kerry-Lugar bill that the US Congress has passed imposes strict conditionalities in return for an annual grant of $1.5 billion for five years. The PML-N is bitterly opposed to the bill, saying it impinges on Pakistan’s sovereignty.
Then president Pervez Musharaf had promulgated the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in October 2007 granting immunity to politicians, military officers and bureaucrats charged with corruption. The measure had enabled the return from exile of Zardari and his late wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The Supreme Court, in its July 31 order declaring as unconstitutional the emergency Musharraf had declared Nov 3, 2007, had also invalidated the NRO and given parliament time till Nov 30 to pass it into law or let it lapse. Parliament will be meeting on Nov 2 to consider the NRO and 36 other ordinances Musharraf had promulgated.
Bhutto and Sharif had worked out the Charter of Democracy governance agenda on the basis of which the slain prime minister’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had decided to jointly fight the general elections that were originally slated for January 2008. The polls were postponed by a month due to Bhutto’s assassination in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi Dec 27, 2007.
The PPP and the PML-N formed the ruling coalition, along with two smaller parties, after their one-two finish in the elections but differences soon surfaced over the implementation of the Charter of Democracy, prompting the PML-N to walk out.
The differences focused on two key areas: restoration of the Supreme Court and high court judges who had been sacked after the declaration of the emergency and the repeal of the 17th amendment Musharraf had rammed through parliament in 2002 transferring key executive powers from the prime minister’s office to the presidency.
While the judges were restored after a bruising lawyer’s “long march” earlier this year, the 17th amendment is yet to repealed, though Zardari had told parliament he is committed to this.