COALITION IN PAKISTAN

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27735, 12 August 1955, Page 11

COALITION IN PAKISTAN

Moslem Leader To Be Premier (Rec. 10 p.m.) KARACHI, Aug. 11. Pakistan’s Awami League has refused to join the proposed three-party coalition government, and Mr Chaudhri Mohammed Ali, the Moslem League leader, is now expected to form a two-party—Moslem LeagueUnited TParty—coalition, with ‘the Awamis in opposition. The Awami League’s decision was announced last night by its leader, Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, who had been offered the post of Deputy-' Prime Minister in the proposed threeparty government. The Moslem League holds 39 of the 80 seats in the Constituent Assembly, and the United Front holds 16. But two prominent members of the United Front, Hamidul Haq Chowdhury and Mammud Ali, last night left the United Party, claiming it had “sold out” to the Moslem League. This was a reference to the collapse of the original proposal for Mr Suhrawardy to be sworn in as Prime Minister of a Moslem League-Awami League coalition government.

Mr Suhrawardy, whose Awami League holds 13 seats in thfe Assem* bly, was to have been sworn in yesterday. but the newly-appointed Gov-ernor-General (Major-General Iskander Mirza) switched the choice for Prime Minister at the Jast minute to Chaudhri Mohariimed Ali, the present Finance Minister, after the United Front had said it would not join a three-party coalition under Mr Suhrawardy. The swearing-in of Cbaudlyi Mohammed Ali, aged 50, is tentatively fixed for tomorrow morning.