Islamabad, June 8 (Representative) Pakistan Peoples Party leader Asif Ali Zardari met with the leaders of PML-N to sort out the party’s differences with them over their ‘desired’ ministries in Punjab and devise a joint strategy with them for next month’s by-polls on 20 provincial seats in the country’s largest province, Dawn reported on Thursday. Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz met Zardari at Bilawal House in Bahria Town and discussed in detail the above matters. “The PML-N and PPP leadership agreed to jointly contest July 17 by-polls on 20 Punjab Assembly seats,” Punjab minister Attauallah Tarar informed, adding that all differences regarding allocation of ministries has been sorted out.When asked about the reasons for not awarding portfolios to the eight members of Hamza’s cabinet and the delay in its expansion, Tarar said: “Both are likely to be finalised before this month’s provincial budget.”
The Punjab chapter of the PPP had complained to Zardari that Hamza Shehbaz was reluctant to give its lawmakers in Punjab their ‘agreed share’. The PPP has seven seats in the Punjab Assembly and they were reportedly promised four ministries and two adviserships by the Sharifs. The party is interested in the portfolios of finance and communication & works, which the PML-N is reluctant to give to the PPP. In the existing eight-member cabinet, two members are from the PPP, but they remain ‘inactive’ in the cabinet and other meetings due to non-allocation of portfolios.Similarly, PPP parliamentary party leader Hasan Murtaza has also been pushing Hamza to give him the ‘senior minister slot and also another ministry’, but to no avail.