Governor’s appointment widens chinks in Pak coalition

President Pervez Musharraf yesterday appointed industrialist and media baron Salman Taseer as the new governor of Punjab on the advice of the Pakistan People’s Party-led federal government.

Former premier Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N, which is ruling Punjab, said it was not consulted on the move. Describing Taseer as a “controversial figure”, the party said his appointment was part of a conspiracy hatched by Musharraf to initiate horse-trading in the province.

PML-N spokesman Siddique-ul Farooq said, “We have not been consulted or taken into confidence. The Information Minister (Sherry Rehman) says they have informed us. There is a lot of difference between informing and taking into confidence.”

The PML-N will boycott Taseer’s swearing-in ceremony today and Farooq warned: “If they (PPP) take further steps like that, the coalition will be in danger.” Observers said the appointment of Taseer, who served as the PPP’s spokesman in the early 1990s, had further estranged the two parties as it came after the PML-N ministers quit the government in the wake of their differences on the contentious issue of reinstating the judges sacked by Musharraf during last year’s emergency.

Senior PPP leader Taj Haider responded to Farooq’s comments by saying that his party had briefed the PML-N on the appointment even though it was “not obliged to consult” its coalition partner.

“Our party says we consulted, they say we only informed.

So I think this objection is not valid at all. The PPP government has acted within its rights and appointed a person who is most deserving,” Haider said, adding Taseer had a “brilliant record of fighting dictators” and had been jailed and tortured during PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s two tenures as prime minister.

“There are jurisdictions that must be respected. We respect their jurisdiction, they should respect ours,” Haider said.

But Farooq pointed out that the PML-N was not only the PPP’s coalition partner at the centre and in Punjab but it was the “senior partner” in the provincial government.

In such circumstances, the PML-N should have been consulted in the matter, he said.

Sharif is expected to meet PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari soon to take up Taseer’s appointment and other issues troubling the two-month-old alliance that was formed by the two parties on March 9.

Taseer had served as a minister in the caretaker government formed by Musharraf to oversee the February 18 general election. The PML-N has said Taseer is a member of the “President’s camp” who is being sent to Punjab to destabilise the party’s government in the province.

PML-N spokesman Farooq said, “We want to keep the coalition intact (so that we) can serve the people of Pakistan for five years. But I think our partners are not serious.” Despite the latest development, the PML-N will not do anything to destabilise the federal government led by the PPP.

The PML-N’s nine ministers quit the federal cabinet this week after failing to achieve the reinstatement of the deposed judges by the self-imposed deadline of May 12 but the party has said it will continue to sit in the treasury benches and support the government on the basis of issues.