ISLAMABAD(PTI): Pakistan’s caretaker government with the reported backing of Pakistan’s all powerful army has come up with a proposal of power sharing between the arch rivals Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharief’s Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).

The current government floated this proposal to resolve the political impasse created by hung Parliament, PML(N) sources said Oct. 14.

According to the broad outlines of proposal, Bhutto and Sharif would share the slot of the prime minister for two and a half years each while heading a grand coalition of the two major parties.

The PML (N) sources said that the proposal was under consideration but a PPP spokesman maintained that during Wednesday’s meeting Bhutto had with acting President Wasim Sajjad and care taker Premier Qureshi, there was no such serious proposal which came up for discussion.

However, the PML(N) sources insisted that Sajjad and Qureshi had talked about the grand coalition plan with Bhutto.

Political observers felt that both Bhutto and Sharif, the two arch rivals, would be reluctant to enter into such a coalition and would rather sit in the opposition while the other was in power for two and a half years in case the proposal materialized.

The impasse had been created by the fact that both PPP and PML(N) candidates have been elected to the national as well as Punjab assemblies, thus reducing their effective strength in both the houses, Any member, with dual member ship, would have to sacrifice one of the two seats. 7

Both the two main contenders for power would like to capture Punjab as otherwise a confrontation between the center and the most populous province could heighten political instability and deepen tension.

According to PML(N) sources, the effective strength of the party in Parliament would be reduced to 66 from 73 and with its allies, the combination would yield 70. On the other hand, PPP and PML (Junejo) combine would have 86 votes as against 92 seats won by them.

With still seven independents from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the 10 minority members keeping their options open, nothing could be predicted as to which side would be able to gain majority.

However, observers felt that Bhutto stood a far better chance of mustering a majority in the national assembly than Sharif.

Of the 217 seats in the lower house, elections were held in 212 constituencies but because of dual membership the effective strength of both the parties would be reduced.

Meanwhile, an official announcement said that the chief ministers of Sindh, the NWFP and Balochistan would be elected on Oct.20 while the head of the government in Punjab chosen on October21. The election of the prime minister would be held on Oct. 19, PPP has an absolute majority in Sindh.

Observes felt that the election of the Punjab chief minister two days after the formation of the federal government could give a lever to the party in power in Islamabad to win some votes in the provincial assembly.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 22, 1993