ISLAMABAD (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani announced on Sunday the acceptance of a ten-point demand raised by a main opposition party in the country in order to avoid an imminent political crisis.

The announcement was made just one day before the deadline laid by the country's largest opposition party chief Nawaz Sharif becomes expired on Monday.
A statement released by the Prime Minister's office said that “ PM telephoned Mian Nawaz Sharif, leader of PML (N) and conveyed a positive response to his ten points.”
PML-N spokesman Ahsan Iqbal confirmed the prime minister's call to Sharif and said that his party's deadline is no more effective as the prime minister has given a positive response.
Sharif has now convened meeting of his senior leaders to discuss the prime minister's announcement and chalk out future strategy, according to PML-N party's leader Siddiqul Farooq.
On Jan. 4, Nawaz Sharif, chief of Pakistan Muslim-League-N (PML- N), issued a 6-day ultimatum for the government to accept his party's demands in order to save it from being collapsed due to the loss of its simple majority in the parliament.
The ten-point demand raised by PML-N mainly includes withdrawal of hike in oil prices, formulating a proper regime for settling fuel, gas and power tariffs so that people are not burdened, putting an end to gas and power outages, stopping corruption and sacking government employees and ministers allegedly involved in graft.
PML-N had also given the government 45-day time to show progress for the implementation of the ten demands.
At a nation-wide televised press conference last week, Nawaz Sharif warned the government while raising his ten-point demand that “the nation should see progress by February 20... If the prime minister says he cannot (accept the demands) we will part ways with the Pakistan People's Party in the Punjab government.”
“We hope that now the government will show progress in 45 days, “said the spokesman of PML-N, adding that the PML-N has formed a three-member committee for talks with the government to implement the agenda.
Local watchers believe that the next challenge facing Gilani's government is whether it can meet PML-N's demands within 45 days or not.
The Pakistani government has fallen into a deep political crisis following last Sunday's decision by another key local party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) to withdraw from the coalition government, leaving the current government a minority in the country's parliament. However, a few days later, after the efforts made by the government, MQM has decided to rejoin the coalition government though they will not join the federal cabinet, making the week-long political crisis much alleviated.