Pakistan crisis: Sharif unwilling to trust Bhutto widower anymore

ISLAMABAD: The efforts of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and its allied parties for reconciliation with twice-elected former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been declared by the Supreme Court of Pakistan ineligible to contest election to any public office, are unlikely to succeed until three major demands of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are met as Sharif is not ready to trust President Asif Ali Zardari anymore, a source in Sharif’s party said here Monday.

“Chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman and President of Awami National Party (ANP) Asfandyar Wali Khan contacted the PML-N supreme leader but failed to make any headway because they even did not mention the top most demand of Nawaz Sharif,” a source in the PML-N said, wishing anonymity. “The PML-N has decided even not to discuss the reconciliation with the PPP without restoration of the deposed judges, lifting of the governor’s rule in the Punjab and removal of Salman Taseer from the office of the governor,” he said.

The source said the senior party leaders have made it clear to Sharif that if he reconciled with Zardari this time as well without getting his demands met, he would lose popularity among masses, which the PML-N could not afford. Therefore, he added, the former prime minister has decided not to trust Zardari this time around.

“Mian Nawaz Sharif is not ready to trust President Zardari at any cost and will not talk to him until his three major demands are met,” he said. “The PML-N leader is not against the government or the PPP but now he will not trust Zardari,” he stressed.

A senior leader of the PPP, Senator Enver Baig also met Sharif in Lahore on Sunday but on Monday he rejected the reports that he conveyed to Sharif any message from the PPP or Zardari. Instead, he said, he met Sharif in his personal capacity because he very old relationship with the Sharif family.