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PML-Q to get deputy prime minister’s slot

PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain accompanied by PML-Q parliamentary leader Faisal Saleh Hayat remained closeted with the president late at night. It was a reunion between Zardari and Faisal, a renegade from the PPP who defected in 2002. Fasial has been bitter critic of Zardari and last year also made a highly derogatory speech against president’s sister Faryal Talpur.
The president, according to Faisal offered to create a new office of deputy premier for the PML-Q besides appointment of a PML-Q nominee for Punjab governor. About a dozen MPs of the party will be inducted in the cabinet.
While former Punjab chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi is being tipped as deputy prime minister, Faisal may get the governor’s slot.
Informed sources said Shujaat will have another meeting with the president on Sunday while the new ministers may take oath on Monday.
The two sides agreed to support creation of a new province in south Punjab and another of Hazara division in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province. They further decided to shelve dissolution of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and keep it under the federal government, till 2014.
Faisal said his party will help PPP government adopt the budget in June and make seat adjustments in the Senate election next year and general elections a year later. “Our cooperation will continue even beyond that in the larger national interest,” Shujaat told reporters.
Shujaat said his party has entered into alliance with the PPP at a time when the country is facing many serious economic, political and strategic challenges.
If the agreed formula is implemented, the PML-Q will get six ministries — health, trade and commerce, petroleum, industries, agriculture and information technology. He said the party will also have six ministers of state, three advisers to the prime minister and a UN ambassador.
mafzalkhan@yahoo.com

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