LAHORE: Consultations between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on the issue of caretaker chief minister of Punjab is underway, PPP’s Secretary General for Punjab Syed Hassan Murtaza has said.

He said the two coalition partners would give serious and non-controversial nominee for the office, he said. He was addressing a press conference at the PPP’s Punjab Secretariat on Monday.

He said the PML-N would not decide the issue single-handedly and the PPP would be part of the consultation process.

When asked about an election alliance between the two parties, he ruled out any such possibility, adding there is only a possibility of seat adjustment between them. He criticized the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman for proposing the name of a serving bureaucrat as caretaker chief minister.

He said political murder of the province was carried out by dissolving the Punjab Assembly. The elected house was sacrificed to the adamant behaviour of Imran Khan. He also congratulated the PPP Punjab workers on clean sweep of local bodies’ elections in Sindh. He also hinted at the joining of PPP by former Governor Punjab Ch Muhammad Sarwar. He said Ch Sarwar is pondering over his political future and he has strong possibility of joining the PPP.

Both Asif Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto have expressed grief and sorrow over the death of senior journalist Khalid Ch. They said Khalid Ch had carried out historic struggle for democracy and freedom of press during the dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq. Meanwhile, Asif Zardari also condemned the murder of former Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior lawyer Latif Afridi and said he was a strong supporter of democracy and a staunch opponent of extremism.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023