A meeting of the coalition partners of the PPP led government was held at the Aiwan-e-sadr late on Tuesday night in which the leaders agreed to dissolve the National Assembly before March 15 followed by the general elections in May.
Munir Khan Orakzai suggested that the National Assembly should be dissolved on March 14 that was unanimously accepted by the leaders.
The meeting, chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, was attended by former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Shujaat Hussain, Mushahid Hussain Syed, Farooq Sattar, Babar Ghouri, Raza Haroon, Afrasiab Khattak, Haji Adeel, Munir Khan Orakzai, Hameedullah Jan Afridi, Senator Abbas Khan Afridi, Israrullah Zehri, Kurshid Shah, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Senator Farhatullah Babar.
President’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar said the meeting discussed the forthcoming general elections and the caretaker setup in accordance with the constitution. He said Law Minister Farooq Naik was specially summoned to brief the meeting on the constitutional provision relating to the holding of elections and the appointment of a caretaker setup.
The coalition partners expressed their views on various dimensions of the issues involved. The meeting expressed the resolve that elections would be held on time and the nomination of the caretaker setup would be in accordance with the constitution.
Naik said under the constitution the caretaker prime minister shall be appointed by the president in consultation with the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in the outgoing National Assembly and in the case of disagreement within three days of the dissolution of the National Assembly, the prime minister and the leader of opposition shall forward two nominees each to a committee to be formed by the speaker of the National Assembly comprising eight members of the outgoing National Assembly or the Senate or both having equal representation from the treasury and the opposition. The spokesman said after the briefing by the law minister some tentative discussion also took place on the probable names for the caretaker prime minister.
The coalition partners agreed to strengthen their cooperation and to have regular contact and consultations as the election drew nearer.
Agreement on dissolution of National Assembly on March 14
