Formation of Pakistan's central gov't deadlocked

ISLAMABAD, March 6 (Xinhua) -- More than two weeks after the general elections were held in Pakistan, the formation of Pakistan's central government remains a secret as two major political parties are scrambling to bridge the division.

Local newspaper The Nation reported on Thursday that the negotiations between Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which emerged as the largest political party in National Assembly (NA), and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had suffered a deadlock.

The report quoted sources as saying that no positive development could be made during the ongoing negotiations due to PML-N's denial to join the federal cabinet.

The PPP leaders were of the view that the country was facing many crises, and both PPP and PML-N, which was led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and secured the second largest number of NA seats, should accept equal responsibilities to resolve these crises.

The PPP made it clear to the PML-N that the benefit would go to President Pervez Musharraf if it did not become part of the federal government. However, the two parties remained divided on many issues after as many as 10 meetings.

Another local newspaper The News on Thursday disclosed that the PPP had eventually won 92 seats and PML-N, 70 seats after 11 independent candidates who had been elected members of NA joined the two parties.

A report of The News said that Nawaz Sharif had shown his flexibility on the issue of joining the central government. The PML-N will become part of the federal government if the PPP could extend its help to PML-N in restoring deposed judges, said the report.

Sharif has repeatedly voiced that the agenda of PML-N had remained the same before and after general elections. Sharif's party has been making efforts to reinstate the judges including former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. Besides, the party insisted that Musharraf should resign.

Nonetheless, the PPP appeared to be less urgent in these two issues. The co-chairman of PPP Asif Ali Zardari has stated that the issues should be resolved in the future parliament. Most importantly, Zardari has not excluded the possibility of working with Musharraf.

Although Musharraf said he was willing to work with any prime minister and political party which won the general elections, his aides believed that he would resign if ex-Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry returned to his post after the new NA started functioning, The New York Times said on Wednesday.

Local TV reports said Wednesday that Musharraf had canceled his trip to Senegal to attend the Organization of the Islamic Conference Summit due to the formation of new government and other important political matters.

Hopefully, the first session of the NA will be summoned before March 10 when the prime minister will be named, local media reports said recently.