NewsSaturday, December 09, 2006
PPPP will contest next elections as pro-Musharraf party, says NiaziISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) will contest the 2007 general elections as a pro-Musharraf party because Benazir Bhutto is a wise politician and wants to maintain relations with the establishment, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi said on Friday.
Talking to reporters at Parliament House, Niazi claimed that Benazir Bhutto was willing to take him back in the PPPP on his terms. He defended his decision of joining the Pakistan Muslim League and said that all members of the Pakistan People’s Party-Patriots from the Punjab would join the ruling party.
Commenting on the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s (MMA) announcement that the religious alliance would resign from parliament in protest against the passage of the Women’s Protection Act, Niazi said that the MMA would not quit the assemblies. “Maulana Fazlur Rehman is a prudent politician who does not take decisions under the influence of sentiments,” he said.
Niazi said that the government would present a new bill on women’s rights in the next session of the National Assembly and the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) would be asked to give its opinion on the bill. He said that the MMA targeted the Federal Shariat Court and the CII because it wanted participation in the two institutions, but the government did not want to politicise these institutions. “Only judges and competent scholars are included in the two institutions and the government will not allow individuals with political affiliations to join them,” said Niazi. The parliamentary affairs minister said that the Supreme Court had formed a larger bench to hear the case of clerics’ madrassa sanads (degrees). online
Courtesy DailyTimes.com.pk