|
Dubai: Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday that he did not want reconciliation at the cost of the national interest.
Sharif told Gulf News before a key meeting with his Pakistan Peoples Party counterpart Asif Ali Zardari that he would not compromise on the national interest. The reinstatement of the judges would remain his top priority.
"Talks should not have reached this point," he said before the meeting. He also regretted that decisions about Pakistan are being made outside the country.
"I came to Dubai to keep the coalition intact and stayed back another day for positive results," Sharif said before he was driven off in a white Mercedes by a PPP aide.
Sharif and his party colleagues including PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif, Parliamentary Party leader in the National Assembly and senior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali, petro-leum minister Khawaja Asif and legal adviser Khawaja Harris looked to be in an aggressive mood when they left the hotel for the meeting.
"We are going for a 'make and make' situation but it could be make or break," Nisar told Gulf News.
'Almost collapsed'
A senior PML-N leader who attended the meeting confided to Gulf News that the talks almost collapsed at one point because the PPP leaders were procrastinating a little too much on what PML-N wanted.
"But they agreed to reach a decision when Sharif finally threw his weight and almost threatened to withdraw his party ministers from the cabinet," he said.
Shahbaz told Gulf News: "We have succeeded in making them accept our point of view and now the judges would be restored according to the Murree Declaration as agreed between the two parties before entering the coalition government in March."
He said that they came here to avert a political crisis because Pakistan could not afford it. "We have to reinstate the judges to have an independent judiciary and we will do it at any cost," he said. Earlier, the talks started at around 2pm during a lunch at a poolside Italian Restaurant in Hilton Hotel in Dubai.
Zardari, along with Rehman Malikm, adviser on Interior Affairs to the Prime Minister, and Law Minister Farooq Naeek, received Sharif and his party leaders and escorted them to the lunch.
"The sea food was excellent and I hope the talk results would also be as good," Nisar joked with journalists after coming out of the lunch and going for the second round of the meeting.
Security and management at the hotel took a back seat as hordes of journalists descended on the venue mostly from the Pakistani television channels, who came to Dubai to cover the event which was closely monitored by millions of people back home and around the world.
The guests at the hotel were also surprised to see dozens of photographers and television cameramen roaming the lobby.
Though the hotel security managed to contain the journalists to their seats initially, the situation went out of their control when the leaders came out of the meeting and the journalists flocked around them blocking the lobby and entrance doors.
Supporters of both the parties also came to the hotel and continued to entertain journalists especially from the Pakistani television channels.
Talks should not have reached this point. I came to Dubai to keep the coalition intact and stayed back another day."
|
