Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani could be the "first victim of President Asif Ali Zardari's extreme anger and vengeance" as he and opposition PML-Q are believed to have agreed to form an alliance to deprive the premier of his post, a media report said today.
The new strategy envisages the President issuing an ordinance to bar PML-Q dissidents in Punjab province from extending support to the PML-N to form a government in the province. Once Punjab is under its control, the ruling Pakistan People's Party will join the PML-Q League to form a coalition at the centre, The News daily reported.
The framework for this strategy was finalised in secret meetings between Zardari and PML-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Moonis Elahi. However, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar has denied such meetings were held.
The newspaper quoted sources as saying that the Chaudhry cousins had told Zardari they would extend cooperation to the PPP in Punjab and at the Centre. The federal government is considering some sort of legislation to deal with the 34-member group of PML-Q dissidents in Punjab.
Sources said Zardari was unhappy with the "deepening relationship" between Gilani and PML-N leaders Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif after the premier "emerged a peacemaker and acquired the role of a sane adviser to the President" in the recent standoff on the deposed judges.
Senior PML-Q leader Tariq Azeem said if the PPP and his party managed to form a government in Punjab, the move would have a direct impact on the centre too as the two parties could form an alliance. He, however, did not give details.
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Buckling to pressure created by a countrywide protest launched by the PML-N and the lawyers' movement, the PPP this week reinstated judges who were sacked during the 2007 emergency.
It is widely believed that Gilani prevailed on Zardari to restore the judges and the move has weakened the President's position.
The only way for Zardari to "get rid of Gilani, who was acquiring more powers, was to make an alliance with the PML-Q and bring in someone else in his place," The News said.
Zardari also had another reason to get rid of Gilani as he was a consensus candidate for premiership when PML-N and PPP decided to form a coalition last year, the report said.
The sources said the "time to punish a defiant Gilani was fast approaching" and if the PML-Q and PPP managed to form a coalition in Punjab, the premier "was first in the line of fire and would be removed".
Zardari was bent on taking on the Sharif brothers after his defeat on the judges' issue, sources said.
The PML-Q has also reportedly urged Zardari not to remove Punjab Governor Salman Taseer as it believed it would not be able to bring dissidents back to the party without Taseer's presence in Governor House.
The PML-Q leaders have suggested to Zardari that he should bring in a new law to stop the dissidents from voting in the election of a new chief minister in Punjab.
Meanwhile, Aitzaz Ahsan, a key player in the lawyers' movement and a dissident PPP leader, has warned that top lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada and former Attorney General Malik Qayyum could create hurdles in restoration of the deposed judges.
Both Pirzada and Qayyum had served as legal advisors to former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Alleging that there is a conspiracy to drag the process of restoration of the judges into legal complexity, Ahsan said if Pirzada and Qayyum tried to subvert the process, the lawyers could launch a fresh protest.
No one could create any obstacle in the process of restoration as the people and lawyers are "determined to foil any evil designs in this regard," he said.