Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Zardari's and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif will discuss key issues, such as smooth approval of the federal and Punjab budgets among other topics, in their meeting Friday in Lahore. Zardari's session with Sharif in Lahore the other day was “basically a courtesy call” and no substantive discussion took place on the real contentious issue of the deposed judges' restoration, according to a participant of the meeting. “During his second visit to Lahore after his return to Pakistan in December last following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Zardari wanted to make a courtesy call on Sharif. When he gave this indication, the PML-N leader invited him to a lunch to show respect to him,” a participant of the meeting told this correspondent. The PPP's attitude in the passage of the Punjab budget will match the PML-N approach in the approval of the federal budget. The two sides believe that the passing of the two budgets would be friction-free. Another participant said that the PML-N was also likely to vote for the proposed increase in the strength of the Supreme Court judges from 16 to 29, which was included in the federal budget. PML-N leaders have come out with conflicting stands on this clause of the finance bill. While some of them privately say the proposal was incorporated in the federal budget with the PML-N's consent, Sharif has threatened that his party would not pass it because it was meant to accommodate the judges, who had taken oath under the Nov 3, 2007 Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO). The participant said that Zardari's meeting with Sharif reflected that the PPP and PML-N were determined to not only keep their coalition intact but wanted to strengthen it. Frequent interaction does help remove misunderstandings and misconceptions, he said. He added that it was clearly evident that despite their persistent differences on the return of the sacked judges the two top leaders wanted to keep in close touch with each other so that the designs of those who wished to break their alliance were continuously frustrated. Except Zardari's chief aide Rehman Malik, none of his top associates especially the most important and relevant interlocutor, Law Minister Farooq H. Naek, accompanied the PPP co-chairman in his “courtesy call” on Sharif, which itself reflected the significance of the session particularly in the context of the judges' issue. Jehangir Badr and Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas, who assisted Zardari, have not earlier been involved in the talks with the PML-N chief on the question of the judges' reinstatement and other key matters. However, all PML-N heavyweights except two were with Sharif to assist him in the session. Chaudhry Nisar Ali was not present. ANP backs impeachment Meanwhile, the Awami National Party (ANP) said it will fully support an impeachment motion against President Pervez Musharraf. “We have no reservation on sending Musharraf home. We, the government coalition partners, have the requisite numbers to impeach the president with a two-thirds majority vote in a joint sitting of both the houses of parliament”, ANP Senior Vice-President Senator Haji Mohammad Adee said. The ANP leader said there was no problem for the coalition partners to go ahead with an impeachment motion. But he disagreed with Zardari over the question of numbers of MPs of the pro-government parties in the National Assembly and the Senate. __
