Lahore, May 24 (ANI): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has said that they would maintain alliance with Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and enable the government to complete its term.
Seat adjustments between the PML-N and PPP had been finalised for the upcoming by-elections, Sharif said.
Anti-democratic forces are pumping out propaganda against the newly elected government to mount pressure and the country's crisis-fraught situation is a result of the previous government's unsuccessful policies, he added.
"The Presidency is hatching conspiracies to pull down the coalition government," Sharif said, adding that there was something familiar and ominous about the Presidency expressing reservations about the coalition government even though it had only come into being recently.
Sharif said that he had been conveying to Asif Zardari, PPP Co-chairman that they had been granted a golden chance to curtail presidential powers and should take it.
He also said that parliament would remain powerless while the president enjoyed the powers conferred on him under Article 58 (2b) and other powers 'grabbed' unconstitutionally.
Sharif also said that PML-N would ensure the restoration of the judiciary.
"For us, Iftikhar Chaudhry is the Chief Justice of Pakistan," Sharif said.
Chaudhry has become the symbol for an independent judiciary and without his reinstatement, an independent judiciary would remain elusive, he said.
PPP meeting over package curtailing Presidential powers underway
Islamabad, May 24 (ANI): The Pakistan People's party Central Executive Committee (CEC) is holding a key meeting at the Zardari House to approve the 62 points constitutional package to reduce the powers of President Pervez Musharraf and amend the Constitution.
Other than the CEC, PPP Chief Ministers of Balochistan and Sindh are also present at the meeting.
The 62-point draft of the constitutional package is likely to be approved in the CEC meeting.
The draft package will be sent to leaders of the coalition parties PML-N, JUI-F and ANP after approval by the CEC.
The package proposes three-year tenure for the Chief Justice of Pakistan; it curtails the President's powers by abolishing article 58-2 (B) and the National Security Council.
The draft also proposes change of the name of NWFP and amendments in Article 62, 63 and Article 90 of the constitution.
Earlier, Asif Ali Zardari provided few details, but made clear that the reforms would reverse changes made to the constitution since Musharraf seized power in a 1999 military coup.
Zardari said the package could be put to a vote in Parliament within weeks, though some observers are predicting that it will quickly bog down in political horse-trading.
Addressing a seminar on media freedom, Zardari appealed to his coalition partners for unity.
He evoked the sacrifices of former premier Benazir Bhutto and her father to bolster his party's claim to lead the struggle for democracy. (ANI)
