The top command of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and its coalition partners decided on Thursday night to resolve the executive-judiciary standoff with the politics of compromise, accommodation and reconciliation.
A source told Pakistan Today that in a meeting of the coalition partners chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani at the Presidency, there was consensus that confrontation between institutions could cause the derailment of the democratic system, so the government should opt for the policy of accommodation and compromise.
The source said that the leadership of the PPP, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and the Awami National Party (ANP) decided that they were political people and could never afford a war with institutions, even if it was “imposed by the other side”. “We have to find middle ways and implement them to save the system from being derailed,” the source quoted leaders as saying. He said some leaders had the opinion that the situation was being exacerbated on specific agendas of some politicians who wanted to avert next year’s Senate elections.
The source said matters related to accommodation of PML-Q ministers without a portfolio were also sorted out in the meeting. “It was decided that a new ministry named ‘Human Resource Development’ would be created by placing together the Employees Old-age Benefit Institution, Workers Welfare Fund and some other related departments of devolved ministries, currently placed under various divisions of the federal government, and the new portfolio would be given to Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain with Sheikh Waqas Akram as his minister of state,” said the source.
The source said further that some departments of the devolved ministries of education, health and local government, currently placed under various divisions of the federal government, would be placed together to create another new ministry, which would be handed over to Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada with Sardar Shahjahan Yousaf as his minister of state.
“In a similar manner, to accommodate former minister for minorities affairs Akram Masih Gil from the PML-Q, a new ministry called the ‘interfaith harmony ministry’ will also be created,” the source added.
