PRESS RELEASE

Islamabad- A meeting of the PPP MPs from Punjab was held today in the Presidency as part of the consultative process to discuss the current political situation in the country particularly in the province of Punjab and also the President’s forthcoming visit to the US.

 The meeting was jointly presided over by PPP Co Chairman and President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani and attended by Federal Ministers Mr. Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Raja Pervez Ashraf, Mr. Babar Awan,  Mr. Qamar uz Zamn Kaira , Ch. Ahmad Mukhtar, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and the Secretary General of the Party Mr. Jehangir Badar.

 Briefing the media about the meeting the Spokesperson former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the President took the participants into confidence about the prevailing political and security situation. The President said that we were at the cross roads and the government had to take some important decision in the interest of national security and stability.

 The President said that he would soon be the undertaking a visit to the US and will have meetings with US leaders on a wide range of issues including bilateral ties and issues of militancy and security in the region and how Pakistan planned to overcome militancy. The President will also inform his interlocutors in the US about the security and economic assistance needed by Pakistan in the ongoing war against extremism and militancy.

 President Asif Ali Zardari said that he had already undertaken a consultative process with all the stakeholders across the political divide so as to develop a broad based national consensus on the policy. On Monday the President held a consultative meeting with the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament whose members also gave useful inputs. The Parliament Committee on National Security had also finalized a consensus report and the government was studying it.

 The Punjab Parliamentary Party expressed full confidence in the leadership of Co-Chairman and President Mr. Asif Ali Zardari. It said that the Party fully backed him in explaining the ongoing militancy to the international community from our national perspective and also in seeking world support in fighting it .

 Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that the issue whether the PPP should stay out of the provincial government in Punjab was also discussed in the meeting.

 After due deliberations and analyzing the situation the Co- Chairman authorized the Prime Minister to explore the possibility of honorable working relationship with the PML (N). The PPP will quit the Punjab government if an honorable modus vivendi could not be worked out with the PML-N, he said.

 The Prime Minister addressing the meeting thanked the Co Chairman for the trust reposed in him. He also congratulated the President over the initiative taken by him through the Friends of Democratic Pakistan to help retrieve the economic situation and to enlist international support to Pakistan’s long term political and economical stability and security.

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Agha Tanveer Iqbal
Secretary Information
PPP Greater London
+44-07931445834