The Hindu : International : Shahbaz sworn in Punjab Chief Minister

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Monday, Jun 09, 2008
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Shahbaz sworn in Punjab Chief Minister

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League (N) strengthened its hold over Punjab Province with Shahbaz Sharif finally taking over as Chief Minister of the province.

Eight years after being ousted, Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother returned on Sunday to head a coalition government in which the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is the junior partner — a reversal of roles with the PML (N) in the federal government.

Punjab, the country’s largest and politically most dominant province is said to hold the key to the survival of federal governments, and the provincial government usually has a key role to play. In the present turmoil, the PPP and PML (N) are coalition partners, but are at loggerheads over the issue of reinstating judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf in 2007.

On Tuesday, lawyers under the command of the Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan would begin a march in Multan, in Punjab, going all the way to the National Assembly in the capital, to press their demand for the judges’ reinstatement.

The PML (N) has thrown its weight behind the lawyers, a situation that could exacerbate tensions with the PPP in the coming days. Last month, the party stormed out of the federal Cabinet for the government’s failure to restore the judges, although it decided to continue in the coalition.

The June 10 lawyers’ rally is being projected as the litmus test of the strength of the coalition. But Mr. Sharif indicated that for now, the two main parties are still friends. After his election, he paid tributes to the PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari for their sacrifices to democracy. He also called on retired General Pervez Musharraf to step down, declaring him as the cause of all problems the country faced.

“We ask him to have mercy on the people of Pakistan and go, so that the government is free to do its work,” he said, adding that the “perpetrators of injustice of the last eight years” would be brought to book. Mr. Sharif had to wait three months to claim the Chief Minister’s post. Like his brother, he could not contest the February 18 elections because he was disqualified.

The PML(N)’s “interim” Chief Minister in Punjab willingly stepped aside for Mr. Sharif after the party nominated him on Saturday, and he was elected unopposed in the Assembly on Sunday.

Mr. Sharif’s election, and that of Feryal Talpur — sister of PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, to the National Assembly from Larkana in Sindh — are also being seen as signs that the that the PPP and the PML (N) have put behind their differences for now and work together.

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