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Zardari: we shall behave responsibly

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday said the new government to be formed with the support of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) would “not disappoint” the people of Pakistan or any of the “stakeholders in the region and beyond.”

“To the world at large, we promise on behalf of the democratic forces and people of Pakistan, we shall behave responsibly, we shall take all the world agendas, we shall come closer to you, we shall solve all these for you,” he said.

Addressing a joint press conference here with Mr. Zardari after their decision to form a PPP-led coalition government, PML(N) leader Nawaz Sharif said all policies, including the new government’s foreign policy, would be decided “jointly.” He also expressed the hope that the country would soon revert back to a full-fledged parliamentary system.

Asked about the PML (N)’s earlier stand that it would not want to join the government as its Ministers would have to be sworn in by General Musharraf, who the party does not recognise as a legal occupant of the office of President, Mr. Sharif said he had set that aside in the interests of fulfilling the “charter of democracy.”

A joint “summit declaration” signed by the two leaders states that the two parties agreed to form a coalition government for “translating the mandate given by the people of Pakistan to the democratic forces”; within a month of this government taking office, to restore the judiciary to its position on November 2, 2007; that the posts of Speaker and Deputy Speaker in the National Assembly will go to the PPP, while the same posts in the Punjab Assembly will go to the PML(N); and, that the PML(N) will be part of the Cabinet in the federal government, while the PPP will join the Cabinet in Punjab.

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