PML-N ministers quit Pak cabinet, efforts for rapprochement on

Tue, May 13 05:28 PM

Rezaul H Laskar Islamabad, May 13 (PTI) All the nine PML-N ministers today quit the six-week-old PPP-led Pakistan government over the issue of restoration of judges, but there were signs of efforts by the two parties to end the political crisis with the Prime Minister refusing to accept the resignations. PPP decided to keep the ministerial portfolios, except for Finance, vacant hoping to bring around former premier Nawaz Sharif's party which pulled out its ministers after the deadline for reinstating the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf expired yesterday.

The ministers submitted their resignation letters to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani this afternoon. Most of them had given up their official security and other protocol arrangements yesterday.

However, officials said Gilani refused to accept their resignations and said a decision on the issue would be taken only after Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari returned to the country later in the day. "A final decision about the resignations will be taken in consultation with the PPP co-chairman when he returns home," an official said.

Shortly after the ministers met Gilani, PML-N spokesman Siddique-ul-Farooq said his party could reconsider its decision to withdraw from the coalition if the PPP-led government took "practical steps" to reinstate the deposed judges in accordance with an agreement signed by the two parties in March. "The situation may change and we may again join the federal cabinet but the first and foremost (thing) is that the PPP should take practical and concrete steps which are acceptable to the nation, legal fraternity and to the PML-N's central working committee and parliamentary party," he said.

PTI.

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