| Our correspondent Anna Comnena reports from the Great Beyond, via Lahore... |
The arrest of Asif Ali Zardari was an attempt to appease senior members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League angry at reports that the government is trying to reconcile with the Pakistan People's Party, government sources told Daily Times.
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The sources said PML leaders including Farooq Leghari and Mian Afzal Hayat had voiced their concern at the reports at Monday's party meeting in Islamabad that was also attended by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, PML president, and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Farooq Leghari, backed by Mian Afzal Hayat, reportedly threatened to cancel the merger of his party with the PML if the government intended to make a deal with the PPP and demanded a clarification of the reports.
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"We merged our party into the PML just to strengthen it and the democracy in Pakistan." Lt Gen (r) Abdul Majeed Malik said the government should have opted to make a deal with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal instead of the PPP. Sindh Chief Minister Ghulam Arbab Rahim expressed unhappiness over the reported contact between President Pervez Musharraf and Pir Pagara and said that it would weaken the Muslim League in Sindh. The sources said that Shujaat and Aziz tried to assure them that the government was not planning a deal with PPP or the PML-Nawaz at the cost of their allies. |