The Pakistan People's Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Awami National Party have decided to move a resolution in the first session of the new parliament that will ask President Pervez Musharraf to seek a vote of confidence from the National Assembly.
This was decided during a meeting between PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and top PML-N leaders Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Ishaq Dar and Khwaja Muhammad Asif in Islamabad late on Tuesday night.
The PPP, PML-N and ANP have close to a two-thirds majority in the lower house of parliament while the PML-Q, which backs Musharraf, was routed in the February 18 polls. Any resolution asking Musharraf to seek a vote of confidence could spell trouble for the embattled President, observers said.
Though the PML-N leaders did not give a positive response to the PPP's overtures to join the federal cabinet, the two parties reached a consensus on three resolutions to be adopted in the first National Assembly session.
These resolutions will seek a United Nations-led inquiry into the assassination of former PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, apologise to the people of Pakistan for the hanging of PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and ask Musharraf to seek a vote of confidence from the parliament, The News reported on Wednesday.
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said his party does not want to join the government as the ministers would be administered the oath of office by Musharraf, whom he considers an unconstitutional and illegal President.
Emerging from the meeting last night, PML-N leader Khwaja Muhammad Asif had said the two parties hoped to achieve consensus about other issues after further consultations.
"Future meetings between the PPP and PML-N will sort out all "unexplored areas and differences of perceptions and policies," said Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
Khan also said: "The nitty-gritty of forming the government has to be worked out, and there will be more meetings. There are no major issues or obstacles (to the formation of the government)."
Meanwhile, Musharraf's camp is hopeful that the new National Assembly will not be able to pass a resolution against him as long as the PPP remains indifferent to any move against the President.
The President would be "safe as long as the PPP does not support the 'oust Musharraf, restore Chief Justice' agenda of Nawaz Sharif", a source close to Musharraf was quoted as saying by The News.
Since the PML-Q was routed in the elections, Sharif has been insisting on the President's resignation. However, Zardari and other PPP leaders have not been so outspoken and they have only said that their party intends to restore the balance between the parliament and the President by curbing some of his powers.
A close presidential aide claimed that Zardari was playing safe and had not shown any interest in the agenda set out by Sharif. Political observers have also pointed out that the PML-N would gain more than the PPP from any move to oust Musharraf and to reinstate the judges who were deposed during last year's emergency.
The observers noted that some deposed Supreme Court judges were hearing challenges to the National Reconciliation Ordinance, which granted amnesty to Zardari in graft cases, when they were sacked. If these judges are reinstated, they could resume hearing the case, the observers said.