RAWALPINDI: Secretary General Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Mushahid Hussain Sayed has said the US is trying to form a joint government of Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.
He was talking to the host of Geo TV’s popular programme “Meray Mutabiq” Dr Shahid Masood. Mushahid said he can tell what will not happen. “No one wants. No mid-term elections are coming. Second, the Army is not coming and the martial law is not being imposed,” he said. Third, he said it is clear that the government affairs could not be run under the present status quo.
Mushahid said he felt action replay of 2007, when efforts were made to bring Musharraf closer to Benazir, adding work on that strategy has begun. “Put Zardari in place of Musharraf and Mian Sahib in place of Benazir,” he said.
Answering a question as to whether this strategy would succeed, he said as Mark Loyal Grant was important part of that strategy, he was in Washington on April 27. He had also met Holbrooke and Hillary Clinton and told them that Gordon Brown has again met Mian Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad and Shahbaz Sharif had a sitting with Foreign Secretary David Milliband.
“Britain’s role is very important. It’s a three-phase strategy. The first phase has been completed. This phase was to weaken the Zardari government by clipping its wings. They had been trying hard to get complete control of the Supreme Court and the government and wanted complete sovereignty.”
Mushahid said their first strategy has been successful. The second part of the strategy is to strike a coalition between Zardari Sahib and Mian Nawaz Sharif Sahib so as to form such a government that could easily be transferred. He said they were working on the second phase of the strategy.
When asked whether it was possible that the president’s powers are cut and Mian Nawaz Sharif is made a powerful prime minister, or powers are distributed, Mushahid said Zardari and Nawaz were political survivors, who had suffered a lot during the last 8 to 10 years. Under the law of necessity, he said, they have to make some adjustment with each other, adding so long Zardari remains in the chair he could agree to such an adjustment.
To another question about Zardari as president and Nawaz Sharif as prime minister in future, Mushahid said: “I don’t say that he will be the prime minister in any case, but his first priority is to bring the PML-N to the coalition.”
This is reflective of the fact that the PPP had decided to quit the Punjab government but it reversed the decision.Presently, pressure is being put on Nawaz Sharif, and presumably Gordon Brown and Holbrooke have also given the same advice to Nawaz Sharif.
To a question whether Nawaz will accept it, he said, it depends on him and he could accept many things in national interest. He maintained that he would not be astonished if Nawaz went back.
Senior journalist Shaheen Sehbai said the US administration wants to put pressure on President Zardari before his Washington visit. If the president refuses to succumb to the US pressure then another civilian set-up could be brought, adding martial law would be the last option with the Capitol Hill.
Shaheen Sehbai said there was a huge pressure on Pakistan’s civilian government and the US authorities are coming down hard on Islamabad verbally. The Obama administration wants a clear-cut answer from Zardari on whether or not he follows the US policies.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqan while taking part in the discussion said when people interpret newspaper reports considering that they need elaboration, problems arise. The statement related to Gen David Petraeus was, in fact, not his statement.
“When I asked General Petraeus, he clarified his statement. He said if you read President Obama’s statement thoroughly you will notice that word ‘administration’ and ‘government’ are used within two different contexts, giving separate meanings.”
Haqqani said if Pakistan’s civilian set-up was weak it did not mean the Zardari government was weak. Obama meant that Pakistan’s civilian institutions were weak.Hussain Haqqani said that there would be mistrust among the people unless Pakistan had the resources to solve the problems of its people. He said it has been only one year to the present government that people have got disappointed, so the government has to deliver something to the satisfaction of the masses.
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