Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and coalition partners have decided to hold general elections in March 2013 – a proposal unacceptable to the Opposition parties.
“They want to finalise everything before going into the elections so they want to drag it to March 2013,” a senior government official told this newspaper referring to the Saturday night meeting at the presidency.
The meeting was called to select the candidates for the Senate chairman and deputy chairman.
“The governments candidates are Nayyar Hussain Bukhari for Senate chairman, and Sabir Baloch from Balochistan for deputy chairman.” said the official.
After finalising the candidates’ names, the coalition partners discussed the early elections.
“All of them agreed that elections should not be held before the end of the year. The PPP (Pakistan People’s Party) wanted time to prepare for the polls,” said the official.
“The idea (of March 2013 elections) was floated by PML-Q (Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and endorsed by ANP (Awami National Party) chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, leaders of the MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement) and others,” the official added.
He said President Zardari also supported the idea, adding that Prime Minister Gilani agreed with the majority’s views.
Sources said the President had told the allies that he would address the joint session of Parliament on March 17, and urged them to come up with their recommendations to be included in his speech.
Finally, it was decided that the allies would meet again on March 15 to discuss proposals from the allied parties, the sources added.
The heads of the coalition parties also deliberated on a strategy for the next general elections.