LAHORE – The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) will only attend the roundtable summit called by President Asif Ali Zardari if its agenda includes the party’s 10-poing agenda, which the PML-N leadership reckons as a lifeline for the country, it is learnt.
Reliable sources told Pakistan Today that in a discussion with PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, a proposal was reviewed that the party should give its consent if Zardari agreed to include the 10-point agenda in the moot. Sources said the meeting observed that 10-point agenda was itself a blueprint of reforms and roadmap to solution of all problems the country was confronting on the national and international fronts. “If the agenda is made part of roundtable conference, the PML-N will agree to accept the invitation,” the sources maintained.
A PML-N senior leader revealed that Nawaz would hold an important meeting to finalise a decision on joining the convention in a week. He said that the level of satisfaction assessed by pace of progress during various rounds of talks on 10-point agenda would also affect the decision. Sources said that during informal talks in Islamabad, Nawaz felt sceptic about the timing and motive of the roundtable summit, doubting that it could be a ploy to divert the focus from talks on the 10-point agenda.
PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rasheed told Pakistan Today that the party could attend the Zardari roundtable conference if the moot took 10-point agenda in broader discussion. But, he said that final decision would be made in consultation with party. Senior leader Raja Zafrul Haq said that contents of agenda proposed by Zaradri were so far unclear.
PML-N central leader Siddiqul Farooq said Nawaz would evaluate the outline of the agenda and then take a final decision. Meanwhile, rebutting reports that the PML-N had endorsed the government’s plan of 25 percent cut in the salary raise given this year to government employees, Senator Pervez Rasheed said his party had not accepted any such proposal.
“The PML-N proposed the government to take concrete steps to cut expenditure of the prime minister, federal ministers, bureaucracy and parliamentarians and launch austerity drive instead of slashing government employees’ salaries,” Rashid said in a statement issued by the PML-N office. He said the basic objective behind PML-N’s 10-point agenda was to improve masses economic condition, uproot corruption in public sector organisations and ensure merit and transparency.
He called the proposed cut in salaries of government employees a “grave blunder”. Rasheed said government employees should not be made a scapegoat for government’s faulty economic policies, corruption and incompetence.
