LAHORE, March 30: Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari said here on Sunday that the ruling coalition’s relationship with President Pervez Musharraf would be determined by the latter’s attitude towards parliament.

“The relationship will depend on the nature of relations between the presidency, the government and the chairman of Senate,” he said at a joint press conference he addressed with PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif in the spacious lawns of the Sharifs’ Raiwind farmhouse.

Mr Zardari had gone there to offer Fateha for Mian Sharif, the late father of Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif.

Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif reiterated their positions on most major issues and tried to quash rumours about a friction between the coalition partners.

They renewed their pledge to change ‘governance ethos, rather than faces’. They also vowed to sustain their ‘cooperation through generations’.

Mr Zardari said that events of historic importance were taking place.

“For the first time in history, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani got a unanimous vote of confidence and a woman had become Speaker of the National Assembly,” he said.

“All this will lead to a change in the relationship between the government and the people.”

He and Mr Sharif said that although they were yet to “discuss national issues” they were speaking to journalists who had been invited earlier than they should have been.Although they were extremely courteous to each other, however, they maintained their different positions on the issue of the MQM joining the coalition at the national level.

Mr Sharif said that his party had “reservations” largely because of the May 12 violence in Karachi.

PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif said his party was only seeking an inquiry into the May 12 killings.

Otherwise, he said, the PML-N recognised the MQM as a popular party and respected its mandate. He indicated that his party would not object to the MQM becoming a partner of the PPP in Sindh, but it had reservations over it joining the coalition at the national level.

Mr Zardari parried a question about an inquiry into the May 12 killings and said that the current situation called for addressing bigger issues like providing relief to people and reforming governance.

Once those issues are taken care of, the party would refine its agenda accordingly.

When asked about arresting who had been “named by Benazir Bhutto as people planning to kill her,” Mr Zardari said: “Only time will decide about the course of action on that front. The party was busy bringing about structural changes in governance pattern in the country and had not spared thought on the issue. The name of those named by Benazir Bhutto would be made public at an opportune time.”

Mr Zardari also claimed that the issue of judiciary had been blown out of proportion.

“The real issue remains building institutions and allowing them to work. Judiciary and police can be declared superior services and made free of the administrative and financial pressures of the state.”

For the first time, he said, a prime minister has telephoned a justice (Ramday) and apologised for the Saturday incident (in which the judge’s official residence had been broken into.)

About the chief minister’s post for Punjab, Mian Nawaz Sharif said: “With the permission of Asif Ali Zardari, Shahbaz Sharif would hold the position. For an interim period, the party would soon name someone else.

On questions relating to reforms in governance and judiciary, both the leaders asked the media to look at the charter of democracy which adequately addressed the matter.Mr Zardari referred the question about economy and new government’s plan to deal with severe economic crisis to Ishaq Dar of the PML-N, who said that the party planned to share “the opening balance with people” and a detailed brief was being prepared.

He said that foreign loans had risen from $30 billion to $42 billion in a year and domestic loans had also touched a historic high.“The economic crisis is at its worst, but the coalition has evolved a strategy to deal with it.”