LAHORE, Jan 17: Former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said on Thursday national elections and formation of a broad-based government were the only solution to current problems of Pakistan.

Talking to journalists here, he said even single seat-parties should also be included in the government after the elections to enable the country to fight the myriad challenges it was faced with.

Obviously, he said, the voters should be ultimate decision makers, but a national consensus government must be formed to pull the country out of current crisis.

The nuclear assets of Pakistan were a hot issue with the Americans, Indians and certain other countries, he said and added, te Pakistanis were fully capable of defending them in face of any problem.

Kasuri’s view on national government is however not endorsed by PML’s Punjab president Pervaiz Elahi.

Talking to Deputy Chief of US mission in Pakistan, Peter Bodde, who met Elahi here on Thursday, he said those demanding a national government were, in fact, trying to sabotage democratic process and looking for excuses to run away from elections.

He said after the announcement of the general elections’ schedule the demand for setting up a national government was totally uncalled for.

He said those demanding such a government, especially Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, were actually trying to flee from the electoral process. The Sharif brothers had been disqualified for life to contest the elections, he added.

“All the parties smelling their defeat in the upcoming general elections are for national government which has no constitutional, ethical and democratic grounds,” he said.

According to him, President Musharraf had assured time and again that the elections would be held in a free, fair, transparent and peaceful manner and observers from all over the world had been invited to monitor the election process. Even observers from Republican and Democratic parties were due to arrive to observe the whole process and all those parties and leaders expressing doubts about the process were simply trying to disrupt the peaceful democratic process in the country, he added.

Pervaiz Elahi also told the American diplomats that during the last five years, the government of PML-Q had introduced reforms in education, health, infrastructure, industrial and other sectors.

He said the government of PML-Q had established a separate ministry for minorities for the first time in the history of Pakistan, besides setting up Child Protection Bureaus to make better citizens those children who were forced to beg.

He said for the first time in the history of the country, free education up to matriculation and free textbooks were given to all students. He said the PML-Q did a lot of work to ameliorate the poor besides setting up emergency services Rescue 1122.

The current political situation and upcoming general elections also came under discussion.

The envoy told him the existing relations between America and Pakistan were very cordial and would be further strengthened in the days to come. They said their government hoped that after the elections, a true representative government would be elected which would continue working for the prosperity of the people.

Principal Officer to American Consulate Bryan D Hunt, Col Beaman and Antone Gruebel accompanied Mr Bodde. Later, James Revell, First Secretary (political), British High Commission, Islamabad, also met Pervaiz and discussed current political situation besides election process.