US ambassador in Pakistan and other officials sent by the Bush Administration have been trying to find a solution to the crisis, but so far no headway was made in finding a suitable person to become the prime minister. On the other hand terrorists have increased their activities. Daily dozens of people are being killed or maimed in the terrorist attacks. Actually the Bush administration has been trying to impose corrupt people on Pakistanis.
The crisis in the Pakistan People’s Party has deepened when co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and senior vice-chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim failed to resolve their differences on the choice of the party’s candidate for the prime minister’s post.
Sources told Dawn that the body language of the two leaders in their second meeting in two days indicated that “all is not well” between them.
Mr Fahim’s insistence that he is the president of the People’s Party Parliamentarians, which is only a technical issue, means that top party leaders differ on some policy matters, particularly on the process of nominating a candidate for the post of prime minister.
Talking to reporters after his one-to-one meeting with Mr Zardari he said they would continue to meet.
When asked how would he react if Mr Zardari nominated any other person for the prime minister’s post, Mr Fahim said he would express his opinion ‘when the time came’.
He said there were no differences between him and Mr Zardari and they met like brothers. “We dined together yesterday and we ate together again.”
PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told Dawn there was nothing ‘extraordinary’ about the meeting because talks among senior party leaders were a routine matter. He said the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere.
According to Dawn editorial, the PML-N leadership has alleged that as many as 21 attempts have been made at the behest of President Musharraf to sow seeds of dissension between it and the PPP since the two main parties decided to form coalition governments at the centre and in Punjab.
If true, this raises serious concerns, and not only on moral grounds, for the stability of the next government. The president and his backers, whether politicians or those in uniform, must not resort to such below-the-belt tactics because the parties concerned have been given a popular mandate by the people to work for the restoration of democratic institutions. It should be left to the election-winning parties to decide how far they are willing to commit themselves to mutual cooperation to cobble together a stable government.
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