By REZAUL H. LASKAR
Islamabad, May 16: Pakistan’s fragile ruling coalition on Friday saw the rift between the key partners widening over a controversial gubernatorial appointment in the crucial Punjab province, with PML(N) warning that the alliance would be in danger if the PPP took more such unilateral steps.
President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday appointed industrialist and media baron Salman Taseer as the new governor of Punjab on the advice of the Pakistan People’s Party-led federal government.
Former Premier Nawaz Sharif’s PML(N), which is ruling Punjab, said it was not consulted on the move. Describing Mr Taseer as a "controversial figure", the party said his appointment was part of a conspiracy hatched by Mr Musharraf to initiate horse-trading in the province.
PML(N) spokesman Siddique-ul Farooq said, "We have not been consulted or taken into confidence. The information minister (Sherry Rehman) says they have informed us. There is a lot of difference between informing and taking into confidence."
The PML(N) will boycott Mr Taseer’s swearing-in ceremony on Friday and Mr Farooq warned: "If they (PPP) take further steps like that, the coalition will be in danger."
Observers said the appointment of Mr Taseer, who served as the PPP’s spokesman in the early 1990s, had further estranged the two parties as it came after the PML(N) ministers quit the government in the wake of their differences on the contentious issue of reinstating the judges sacked by Mr Musharraf in 2007.
Senior PPP leader Taj Haider responded to Mr Farooq’s comments by saying that his party had briefed the PML(N) on the appointment even though it was "not obliged to consult" its coalition partner.
"Our party says we consulted, they say we only informed. So I think this objection is not valid at all. The PPP government has acted within its rights and appointed a person who is most deserving," he said, adding Mr Taseer had a "brilliant record of fighting dictators" and had been jailed and tortured during PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif’s two tenures as Prime Minister.
"There are jurisdictions that must be respected. We respect their jurisdiction, they should respect ours," Mr Haider said.
But Mr Farooq pointed out that the PML(N) was not only the PPP’s coalition partner at the centre and in Punjab but it was the "senior partner" in the provincial government.
In such circumstances, the PML(N) should have been consulted in the matter, he said.
Mr Sharif is expected to meet PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari soon to take up Mr Taseer’s appointment. Mr Taseer had served as a minister in the caretaker government formed by Mr Musharraf to oversee the February 18 general election.
The PML(N) has said Mr Taseer is a member of the "President’s camp" who is being sent to Punjab to destabilise the party’s government in the province. (PTI)
