LAHORE, Jan 31: The PML-N has hinted at supporting the PPP in the formation of a union government in case both the opposition parties fare almost equally but none of them is in a position to form the government independently after the Feb 18 elections.

“The PML-N will show large-heartedness for the sake of national unity. Every step that may help promote harmony among the federating units will be taken,” party president Shahbaz Sharif told Dawn here on Thursday.

He said the PML-N was also determined to form, after coming into power, inquiry commissions for making public the facts behind Kargil war, Baloch leader Akbar Bugti’s killing as well as the Lal Masjid episode.

Shahbaz believed that the PML-N would come out as the majority party provided the electoral exercise was transparent.

“Nawaz Sharif Saheb (former prime minister and PML-N patron) is much popular among the masses and I am sure that his popularity will vote the party to power.”

He, however, alleged that the polls would be massively manipulated in favour of the PML-Q.

Asked if the party had set any benchmark for evaluating the rigging, he said: “No one will call the daylight as dark. Fair and transparent elections will leave no excuse for the people to declare the exercise as rigged.”

Answering another question, he said protest against the rigging would be launched when the time (for it) came.

About training of the party’s polling agents like that of the PML-Q’s, the PML-N leader said the Q League was rather training its people on how to rig the polls. “However, our people know well how to foil such attempts.”

He said the issue also figured during his meeting with PPP co-chairperson Asif Zardari in Karachi the other day. It was decided that polling agents of both the opposition parties would remain alert on the polling day and would not leave their respective places without receiving vote count from the presiding officers.

Sharif said though no specific cooperation was discussed in the meeting, “we resolved to work in close coordination with all the parties believing in democracy and in the rule of law”.

Asked if any formal set-up had been suggested to carry out the job, his answer was in negative. “It has been decided that mutual consultations will be held among democratic forces in the parliament on important issues like saying no to validating unconstitutional steps (of the Musharraf regime).”

KARGIL: “The nation has the right to know the facts so far not disclosed,” Shahbaz Sharif said when asked about the PML-N’s demand of constituting an inquiry commission to investigate the facts behind the Kargil war which the party claims was waged by the army without taking into confidence then prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Denying that personal vendetta was behind this demand, he said such a body had also been constituted in India and none had objected to it there.

Answering another question about investigating Akbar Bugti’s `murder’ and Lal Masjid issue, he said the nation wanted to know that where the excesses had been committed and who were responsible for the wrongdoings. “Only a transparent inquiry could satisfy the masses,” he added.

Asked what were the minimum demand(s) the PML-N would put forward as a condition to reconcile with the Musharraf regime for steering the country out of the crisis it was in, Shahbaz said: “Resignation of Gen (retired) Musharraf, an interim government of national consensus which could hold fair and transparent polls.”

JUDICIARY: Restoring the constitution and the pre-Nov 3 judiciary would be the first priority of the party after coming into power, he said replying to a query.

About his party’s stance on the issue of disappearances of citizens at the hands of intelligence agencies which was one of the disputes between the judiciary and the executive, Mr Sharif said the PML-N would take every possible legal step to recover the illegally detained people and arranging their meeting with their near and dear ones.

“Everyone will be asked to go by the book.”

TERROR: The PML-N during its last stint in power had tackled to a good extent the menace of sectarianism by taking some extra-ordinary measures, including the constitution of special anti-terror courts.

Asked if the party had any remedy to check the ongoing wave of suicide bombing and insurgency, he said it required working on root-causes of the extremism besides taking administrative steps.

Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, lack of basic amenities provided a perfect nursery for extremism to nurture on, he said.

“Administrative measures in combination with social action programme have been and will give good results. The nation will also positively respond to it like it had in the past against sectarianism.”

FlOOR-CROSSING: Answering a question about accepting former PPP federal minister Pervaiz Ali Shah in the PML-N folds, he said the step would not spoil his party’s relations with the PPP for Mr Shah had not directly landed into the PML-N.

“He had left the PPP long time ago and had contested 2002 polls as an independent.”

Asked if his party would accept MPs of other parties, especially of the PML-Q, allowing floor-crossing which the PML-N itself had banned through a law during its last stint in power, Shahbaz said he could promise just one thing that nothing would be done against the law.