Lahore: President Asif Ali Zardari has
asked PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to persuade Maulana Fazlur Rehman's Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to join a proposed "national reconciliation government", political sources said on Thursday.
Zardari telephoned former premier Hussain yesterday
and asked him to use his influence to persuade Rehman to
rejoin the federal government.
Rehman's party quit the PPP-led government last year
after one of its ministers was sacked for indiscipline.
The president also asked Hussain to talk to the MQM's
leadership and to allay their concerns.
"Both the leaders agreed to meet once the JUI and MQM
issue is settled to finalise the modalities for the new
national reconciliation government," said a PPP leader who did
not wish to be named.
"The PPP's efforts could not bear fruit in wooing the
JUI and MQM. Now the PPP leadership believes that Hussain
enjoys good relations with Fazlur Rehman and he can also act
as a guarantor between the PPP and the MQM," the PPP leader
said.
Hussain has reportedly agreed to convince Rehman but
he did not make any promise about the MQM, the political
sources said.
A PML-Q leader said Rehman had great respect for
Hussain and the former would find it difficult to say no to
the latter.
So far as the MQM is concerned, Hussain does not want
to become a "guarantor" on the PPP's behalf though Hussain
would talk to the MQM's leadership, the PML-Q leader said.
Farooq Sattar, deputy convener of the MQM's central
coordination committee, said his party had strong reservations
about the way in which the federal government is being run.
"There is a need to take steps to end violence and
extortion in Karachi. Sustainable and people-friendly economic
policies should be framed and the budget document for 2011-12
should not be conventional," he said.
However, Sattar did not set any conditions for
rejoining the PPP-led government.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, April 21, 2011, 21:27