LAHORE/SUKKUR: The national and provincial assemblies would be dissolved on March 16 and the general election will be held within 60 days after that, two federal ministers said on Saturday.

The government also dropped a hint that names for the caretaker government would be finalised in a week.

“We will dissolve the assemblies on March 16 and then elections will be held within 60 days,” the Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira, told reporters after a Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain-led government delegation held talks with Pakistan Awami Tehrik leader Dr Tahirul Qadri.

Mr Kaira said the government and the PAT had agreed over allocation of 14 days, and not 30-days, for the scrutiny of nomination papers. He said the government would introduce an amendment to the related law that allowed seven days for this purpose.

Flanked by PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat, Law Minister Farooq H. Naik and Syed Mushahid Hussain, Mr Kaira said the government would involve Dr Qadri in the consultation for the nomination of caretaker prime minister. “We will meet Dr Sahib soon to finalise the name for the caretaker premier’s slot,” he pledged.

Mr Kaira ridiculed the PML-N for taking some PPP MPAs in its fold, saying he would ask President Asif Ali Zardari to announce medals for Chaudhry Nisar and Shahbaz Sharif on March 23. “Of the nine legislators, eight were already in contact with the Mian Brothers,” he said.

He declined to comment on the MQM’s announcement about parting ways with the PPP, saying he would talk on the issue after consulting his party leadership.

Dr Qadri appreciated the government for consulting him over the interim set-up, elections and electoral reforms.

Caretaker government: Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah said on Saturday names for caretaker government would be finalised in a week and elections would be held in May.He was talking to the media during the inauguration of a road from Sukkur Barrage to Rohri bypass in Sukkur. The road has been constructed at the cost of Rs50 million.

About the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s estrangement from the Pakistan People’s Party, he said the MQM was a PPP ally only in government and it was not necessary that both the parties jointly fought elections.

On a question about withdrawal of cases against Lyari’s gangsters, he said it was not a unique event as such cases had been withdrawn in the past also.

He said eights members of the Punjab Assembly, who had deserted the PPP and joined the PML-N on Friday, had earlier been issued show-cause notices by the PPP for not casting votes for the party candidates in March 2, 2012 Senate elections.

The minister predicted that the PPP would obtain 15 to 20 per cent more votes in Punjab in the coming elections as compared to previous ones.

About the newly launched Metro Bus Service in Lahore, he said that Rs97 billion had been spent on the project and alleged that the buses were in such a poor condition that on the inaugural day of the project, gear box of a bus developed a fault and the vehicle rammed into a wall.

He accused the Punjab government of indulging in unnecessary spending over construction of overhead bridges, distribution of laptops and the Roti plants scheme and said nobody asked it about the misuse of funds.

About Dr Tahirul Qadri’s long march, the minister said the government had skillfully resolved the issue through negotiations. Asked who was behind Dr Qadri, Mr Shah said he (Dr Qadri) and God knew better.

He said it was yet to be seen whether those politicians, who had floated the idea of confederation, would be absorbed in the PML-N or not.