ISLAMABAD, July 29: In a significant development, former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has become suddenly active and held a series of high-profile meetings, creating an impression that he may be getting ready for a role to defuse the charged political atmosphere.
He met Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Sunday for the third time after his recent meetings with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and President General Pervez Musharraf.
Mr Jamali, it may be mentioned, quit the ruling Pakistan Muslim League a couple of months back, accusing the party’s high command of ignoring him while taking important party decisions. His decision to quit the party made little political impact, his half-hearted announcement to launch his own party fizzled out and so did his efforts to join Functional League of Pir Pagara.
But his recent meetings in the capital indicate that he may have been given the task of bridging the differences between important power players, which may also serve his objective of undermining his main political foes — the Chaudhrys whom he blames for his unceremonious exit from the PM House in 2004.
His meeting with the Chief Justice after the latter’s reinstatement by the Supreme Court was significant in view of his declared support for President Musharraf.
Mr Jamali also met the president before the latter left for Abu Dhabi for his yet to be officially confirmed talks with PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, and interestingly he was the first politician here to welcome the meeting. He described it as a step forward to reduce the intensity of political tension that was taking its toll.
According to sources, during his meeting with Prime Minister Aziz, Mr Jamali discussed the government’s efforts to reach an understanding with the PPP and said that an alliance between the ruling PML and the PPP was the only way out of the current political crisis.
The prime minister, according to the sources, said that discussions and consultations among political forces were the hallmark of democratic culture and that the PML and its allies would contest the next elections from a single platform on the basis of their performance.
When contacted, Minister of State for Information Tariq Azeem Khan said he would not attach any importance to Mr Jamali’s meetings with the prime minister, president or anyone else and added that those were a routine affair.
