Pakistan People's Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari overcame pressure and enticement from President Pervez Musharraf's camp and the United States to not align with former premier Nawaz Sharif's party, to form a coalition government with the PML-N, a media report said on Friday.
Zardari, who announced along with Sharif that their parties would form a coalition, was offered governments at the Centre and at least three of the four provinces if he distanced himself from the PML-N and allied with the PML-Q and other pro-Musharraf forces. However, Zardari told members of the President's camp who approached him that he did not consider the PML-Q "a political entity", The News reported.
Despite reservations of some PPP leaders from Punjab on the issue of aligning with the PML-N, Zardari endorsed the idea of forging a coalition with Sharif's outfit and the Awami National Party.
Zardari also expressed confidence that the PPP and PML-N, the two most popular parties, would sort out all issues to make a workable coalition both at the Centre and in the provinces.
The PPP, which has emerged as the single largest party with 88 seats and Sharif's PML-N together have 153 seats with votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituencies.
Though Zardari did not talk of pressure from the US at his joint news conference with Sharif, PPP sources confirmed that the Americans had "brought tremendous pressure on the PPP co-chairperson to make a coalition government with the likes of the PML-Q and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) but not with the PML-N".
Zardari ruled out working with the PML-Q
His decision to work with the MQM may have been influenced by that party's strong performance in PPP's traditional stronghold of Sindh, especially the commercial hub of Karachi.
The PML-N's foremost priority - the reinstatement of judges deposed during last year's emergency did not get the approval from Washington despite the fact that this is the most popular demand of the people within Pakistan, The News reported.
The PPP, a source said, is not averse to reinstating deposed judges but only differs with the PML-N on the strategy for this. Initially, it was the PPP's slain chairperson Benazir Bhutto who publicly called deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry "her chief justice and demanded the reinstatement of all sacked judges".
However, following pressure from the US, she avoided the demand for the restoration of judges. But later, while addressing her last public meeting, Bhutto resolved that the deposed judges would be restored.