ISLAMABAD: With both the Pakistan People’s Party and its government in a quandary over the Supreme Court’s verdict against the National Reconciliation Ordinance, cracks that have been visible in the party for months are poised to widen.
The SC verdict has heightened pressure on Gilani to remove the NRO-tainted ministers from his cabinet.—File photo by APP
A spokesman for the prime minister said on Thursday that the government had “started consulting legal experts for the implementation” of the verdict, while President Asif Ali Zardari convened a meeting of PPP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Saturday to discuss the judgment’s fallout.
Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told journalists that President Zardari and MQM chief Altaf Hussain had discussed the political situation over phone.
The MQM chief and other senior members of his party were among the beneficiaries of the NRO.
The government gave a cautious response to the judgment, saying that it “respects” the verdict and was awaiting the detailed judgment.
The Minister of State for Law, Afzal Sindhu, told DawnNews that there was no imminent threat to the Presidency because under Article 41 of the Constitution a presidential election could not be challenged in any court.
Political experts believe that besides President Zardari, the situation has also brought Prime Minister Gilani under pressure.
The SC verdict had heightened pressure on Mr Gilani to remove the NRO-tainted ministers from his cabinet, they said.
The dilemma for the prime minister is that if he asks these ministers to quit, the pressure will shift to President Zardari, who is also his party’s co- chairman.
The prime minister has been striving for the past six months to cut the size of the cabinet and is likely to raise the issue in the CEC meeting.
Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, will attend a CEC meeting for the first time since the restoration of the deposed judges in March.
His membership was suspended by President Zardari because of his role in the judges’ movement in violation of the party policy. It was restored this month after a demand by some members in the last CEC meeting.
It will be interesting to see what advice Mr Ahsan gives to the party leadership. Sources told Dawn that the ‘dissidents’, though in minority, were set to criticise the policies of the government and the party.
In the CEC meeting held last month, some members who were close to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto but had been sidelined by the present leadership criticised party policies.
They called for action against those who had brought it to a position where no “genuine” leader was ready to defend the government and the PPP leadership.
Senator Dr Safdar Abbasi, MNA Nawab Yusuf Talpur and a member from Gujrat, Ghazanfar Gul, indirectly criticised President Zardari’s aides and called for bringing veteran party leaders and activists to the forefront.
They called for taking those to task who had “embarrassed” the party and the government on issues ranging from judges’ restoration to the NRO.
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