PPP, PML-N to jointly contest Punjab by-polls next month.

LAHORE -- Ruling coalition partners, the PML-N and PPP, have pledged to contest the July 17 by-polls in Punjab jointly, as nominees of the latter were directed to withdraw their candidatures for all the 20 vacant seats.

The decision was announced in a joint press conference held by PML-N Punjab ministers Attaullah Tarar and Malik Mohammad Ahmed Khan, and PPP minister Syed Hassan Murtaza at the PPP secretariat here on Wednesday.

Mr Murtaza said his party had decided to withdraw its candidates in the by-polls in the larger national interest, but would contest against the PML-N in the next general elections.

The support comes in the wake of a statement by the PPP leader a day ago in which he had criticised the coalition partner, the PML-N, for allocating portfolios to its ministers but delaying it for the PPP members of the provincial cabinet on one pretext or the other.

He was assured that the portfolios of PPP ministers would be announced immediately after passage of the provincial budget.

Mr Tarar thanked PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and his father Asif Ali Zardari for extending support to the PML-N nominees in the by-polls in Punjab. He said had the father and son not played their role in the ouster of Imran Khan, the PML-N would not have been able to make a government in Punjab.

He further said the PPP would be taken along not only in the election, but also governance matters.

As the home minister, he announced that there would be a complete ban on display of arms under Section 144 of the PPC in the 20 constituencies of the...