PML-N having doubts over support to Zardari

JOINING HANDS: Just two days ago Sharif and Zardari had held a joint press conference.

    

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Islamabad: The pulls and pressures of forming a coalition government are apparently coming to a boil in Pakistan.

Pakistani sources have told CNN-IBN that the Nawaz Sharif camp is beginning to have some serious doubts about Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari specifically with respect to his plans for President Pervez Musharraf.

The PPP leader has not indicated whether he will support Musharraf's impeachment and in fact likely prime minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim does not favour the idea at all although he says that's his personal view.

Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is also upset over the manner in which the United Sates of America has got involved.

The view in the PML-N is that coalition politics requires a common agenda that both sides must be committed to.

The PML-N is reportedly taking another look at its plan to support Zardari for a full five-year term.

Meanwhile, Fahim clarified that reports of his rift with Zardari are not true. He said that the formal announcement about who would be the prime minister of Pakistan would be made in the next two days.

"I am a party worker and party knows my credibility and my support for Benazir Bhutto," Fahim said about the slain former prime minister.

When a senior Pakistani journalist was asked if Sharif could still back out of supporting Zardari, he said it was unlikely.

"I don't think so at all because a couple of days ago we have seen that there was a joint press conference in which the stated position was put forward by both the parties that they would be moving on and joining hands in forming a coalition government. I think that only after two days after that press conference it does not look pragmatic at all for any leader to back out of the public statements that they have given before the media," he said.

He also said that Fahim's comments about not impeaching Musharraf might have been made in keeping with the present ground situation in Pakistan.

"I have spoken to some Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders and only yesterday Sharif said that they would be willing to give a safe exit passage to Musharraf and in this context if we see the statement of Amin Fahim that impeachment is off the cards, it is more of a pragmatic approach because there is a way to go for the formation of the government. There are some constitutional and legal issues to be resolved. The Speaker has to be elected and then the members have to be notified by the Election Commission. What these statements mean that there is a bit of time before such bigger agenda is to be taken up," he said.

However, Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) (PML-Q), which was routed in the polls for backing Musharraf, is ready to support the PPP.

In a statement that could be seen an attempt to break the prospective Zardari-Sharif alliance, the PML-Q said it was committed to democracy and would extend support on the basis of a national agenda.

"We have also said that we would like to support the future government on a national agenda above party lines. That national agenda should focus on issues such as combating extremism and terrorism, a common social agenda focusing on education, health, welfare justice and rights of women, rights of minorities, making Parliament the pivot of decision making," Mushahid Hussain, PML-Q Senator, said.