ISLAMABAD, Jan 23: President Asif Ali Zardari and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif met here on Friday in what appeared to be an effort to bridge the trust deficit between the PPP and PML-N on various national issues. However, the meeting is reported to have failed to yield a positive result.

Significant changes in the political landscape are likely during the next two months, especially in March when Senate election and the lawyers’ long march are due.

According to sources, the most contentious issue discussed in the meeting was the 17th Amendment which gives extensive powers to the president.

President Zardari, who had invited Mr Sharif, who is president of the PML-N, to dinner, sought his party’s support on major issues and said he wanted to work in cooperation with him, the sources said.

However, Mr Sharif stuck to his party’s stance that it would continue to support the lawyers’ movement for reinstatement of the deposed judges and repeal of the 17th Amendment.

When the issue of disqualification of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif came up, the PML-N leader said he was ready to sacrifice the chief minister’s post, but his party would not give up its support for the lawyers’ movement, the sources said.

The PML-N leader urged the president to honour the Charter of Democracy (CoD) whose first clause was about repealing the 17th Amendment and disarming the president of the power to dismiss a government under Article 58(2)b.

According to the sources, the president said he and his party were committed to repealing the 17th Amendment by passing the 18th constitutional amendment for which major parties -- Pakistan People’s Party, PML-N, PML-Q and Muttahida Qaumi Movement -- had presented draft bills.

President Zardari said the government was examining the draft presented by the PML-N and emphasised the need for tabling a bill in parliament which would be acceptable to all parties.

When contacted, president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar termed the meeting a ‘routine get-together’.

“As there was no agenda of the meeting, how can it be declared a success or failure?” According to a handout of the President’s House: “Punjab Chief Minister Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif called on President Asif Ali Zardari in the Presidency and had dinner with him. During the meeting, political situation of the country was also discussed.”

PML-N information secretary Ahsan Iqbal also termed it a routine meeting which remained inconclusive.

He quoted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif as saying: “Meetings which are productive and beneficial for democracy and the country must be held but those which are convened only for the sake of meeting cause disappointment among people.”Mr Iqbal said there should have been a real change in the country for which people had voted in the election last year. “We demand restoration of the judiciary, good governance, implementation of the Charter of Democracy and appointment of government employees on merit.”

Meanwhile, the PPP has strengthened its ties with the MQM. An MQM leader said the PPP had accepted all major demands of his party.

The party is likely to be given federal ministries of ports and shipping, communications, housing and works and petroleum.