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Islamabad: The Pakistan Peoples Party is set to quit the Punjab province government headed by the Pakistan Muslim League-N in retaliation for latter's withdrawal from the federal ruling coalition, party sources said on Friday.
The PPP members of the provincial cabinet of chief minister Shahbaz Sharif have already stopped attending their offices and official meetings and a formal parting of ways is expected after the September 6 presidential election.
Despite the rupture between the two major parties over non-reinstatement of the deposed judges following former president Pervez Musharraf's ouster, both have vowed not to repeat their bitter rivalry of the decade of 1990s.
PML-N parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told the media he had met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and requested him to accept the pending resignations of nine PML-N ministers.
Opposition benches
Khan said he had also asked for allocation of seats for the PML-N lawmakers on the opposition benches in parliament.
Prime Minister Gilani told reporters yesterday in Karachi that he would accept the resignations soon as the party had made it clear it would not return to the alliance unless the judges were restored.
Gilani reiterated that the PPP was committed to resolving the judges' issue but said he could not give a time frame for their restoration. "It is not appropriate to give deadlines in this respect because it is up to the parliament to take a decision," he said.
A meeting of PML-N leaders chaired by former premier Nawaz Sharif here yesterday decided not to rejoin the PPP-led coalition, a party leader said.
PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq told media the meeting discussed the political situation with special reference to the presidential elections.
It was decided that the PML-N would not withdraw its presidential candidate, he said.
Responding to a question, Haq said no change in the government in Punjab was likely after PPP's expected withdrawal from the provincial coalition.
He said it was morally incumbent upon PPP to pull out from the Punjab government as the PML-N had quit the federal ruling coalition. "After five months in the coalition we have realised that alliance with the PPP is not possible," another senior PML-N leader Khawja Asif told reporters.
Meanwhile, campaign for the September 6 vote by federal and provincial legislators to elect next president has picked up.
The contestants are PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, PML-N's Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui, a former chief justice, and former ruling PML-Q's Mushahid Hussain Sayed.
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