Presidential election: coalition declares Musharraf 'unanimous candidate', says Durrani

The coalition partners of the government on Wednesday expressed unconditional and overwhelming support to President Pervez Musharraf declaring him their 'unanimous candidate' in the forthcoming presidential polls.
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Durrani on Wednesday told media here at PID Media Center that coalition parties had expressed full confidence in the leadership of President Musharraf, voicing unconditional support for the president at an extraordinary meeting held at the Prime Minister Secretariat which was attended by as many as 26 Ministers from all the coalition parties.
"The two-hour-long meeting was expressive of the enthusiasm and eagerness for supporting the reelection of the president which would ensure the continuity of the incumbent leadership and consistency of the policies of the coalition government. The coalition government enjoys majority in the parliament and the provincial assemblies and it would easily get the president reelected for the top slot," he said adding that the coalition was confident of the reelection of the president as they were unanimous on the president's reelection.
"As the electoral process is kicking-off with the presidential polls, President Pervez Musharraf would present him on the basis of his seven-year performance while the coalition partners would contest the general polls on the basis of their five years long service of the masses," said the Minister.
He said Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mushahid Hussain Sayed also attended the meeting besides the ministers from the coalition partners.
Durrani told media that Justice Abdul Razzaq Thahim (Retd) conveyed the message from PML (Functional) leader Pir Pagaro expressing full support to President Musharraf and government policies.
"Pir Sahib has also reiterated his support to the president regarding his reelection and he has also expressed his desire not to keep contacts with any other party. The PML (F) is a government ally and it would continue its support towards government policies," he said.
When asked whether the meeting was taken into confidence over government-PPP dialogue, the Minister said that Prime Minister and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain took the coalition partners onboard regarding the dialogue.
"The dialogue for a broad-based reconciliation are in process and these talks are ongoing with the consultation of Prime Minister and the PML President," he said and added that the objective of the talks was to create national consensus on national issues so that the country could advance towards holding of fair, free and transparent elections.
Durrani further said the meeting also agreed to uphold the constitution and law of the land in tackling all outstanding issues. He said the meeting also concluded that government would continue its policies of resolving issues of the common man through good-governance and addressing issues. He said all required steps would be taken to ensure economic uplift of the masses.
The Minister denied that President Musharraf had any plan to hold a meeting with PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto in the near future to give final touches to the government-PPP deal.
"I denied such a plan even on (Tuesday) in a television programme. No the President has no such plan," he added. He said the Prime Minister also briefed the meeting on the Ramazan Package announced by the government to tackle the issue of price-hike and inflation. He said this initiative would benefit the poor and under-privileged classes to combat price hike.
When asked whether some of the ministers had expressed their reservations on the ongoing PPP-government talks, the Minister said there was some concerns raised by some members. However, he added, those members were satisfied on the continuation of talks when briefed by the PM and PML President.
To a question regarding the reported reservations by MQM, he said that Governor Sindh Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan was briefed over the dialogue process on Tuesday night while the MQM Ministers were briefed in today's meeting.
When asked about the statement of PML-N leader Raja Zafar-ul-Haq questioning the accuracy of the statement of the Saudi Government spokesman, the Minister said that statement of Saudi Government's spokesman was there on the website of the official Saudi news agency.
"The statement is there on the news agency website. How can an individual of such high stature mislead the nation on such an important issue? We hope that politicians would adopt a reasonable attitude. This is utterly irresponsible attitude to create doubts regarding the statement of the spokesman of Saudi Government which is sacred for Muslims all over the world," he said and added that a senior politician having the stature of Raja Zafar-ul-Haq should not mislead the media and the nation.