It would be a test of Chaudhry Shujaat`s skills, said a PPP leader. — Photo by AFP

LAHORE: The PPP leadership has requested PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who is considered to be close to the establishment, to help defuse tension between the government and the armed forces.

This was confirmed by a PPP leader who told this correspondent that it would be a test for Chaudhry Shujaat`s skills.

`Chaudhry Shujaat has earlier successfully played the role of a mediator between the PPP leadership and the military high command and he is expected to bail out the government also on this occasion,` the leader said.

The tension between the two institutions mounted after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in an interview to the People`s DailyOnline of China that affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court by Chief of the Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI Director General Lt-Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha on the memo issue were `unconstitutional and illegal` `Our party chief Chaudhry Shujaat is ready to mediate between the army and the government,` PML-Q`s central information secretary Kamil Ali Agha told Dawn.

He said the PML-Q would not mind trying to bridge the gulf between the two institutions because it was in the interest of the country. `Nobody will like clash of institutions.

Mr Agha said Chaudhry Shujaat had only recently urged all the people concerned to exercise restraint and clear misunderstandings through dialogue.