The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has decided to attend a dinner being hosted by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif for members of the opposition parties today (Monday).
According the local media reports, the PML-N president is hosting the dinner in honor of the opposition parliamentary leaders. The PPP delegation will reportedly include Opposition leader in the Senate Yousaf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Sherry Rehman.
PPP leader Nayyar Hussain Bukhari said that this was an invitation for opposition leaders and not of the Pakistan Democratic Movement alliance.
Sources in the PPP said the party’s senior leadership thought attending the dinner reception would be beneficial for the opposition in giving a tough time to the PTI government in the budget session in the National Assembly, The News had reported.
PPP’s Bukhari said that neither does the PDM president nor its secretary-general have the authority to kick PPP out of the alliance. He said the differences with PPP could have been resolved by sitting down or a discussion instead of sending show-cause notices.
Some analysts believe that PPP may rejoin the main political parties and give a tough time to the ruling party. However, the PPP has clarified several times that it will not resign from the assemblies.
PPP should not resign from assemblies, Aitzaz Ahsan
Aitzaz Ahsan, a senior leader of PPP and a prominent lawyer, has said that Maryam’s plan doesn’t appear to be succeeding. He was speaking to SAMAA TV on Tuesday. The PPP leader advised the Pakistan Democratic Movement to postpone its rally in Lahore on December 13. “Governments are not toppled through rallies and processions,” he said. “The third force topples them.”
Aitzaz opposed the opposition’s move to resign en masse too. “How can the PML-N alone decide this,” he questioned. Opposition parties should be aware that Nawaz Sharif’s narrative does not serve PDM’s interests, the PPP leader said.
The Nawaz-league has now confronted the third force too, he said, adding that the party which favors collective resignations should submit them. In my opinion, he said, the PPP should not go to this extent.
Responding to a question about Ahsan’s point of view with regard to en masse resignations from assemblies, the PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, had said that the party would soon convene its Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting and the PDM’s decision would be put before it and everyone would be allowed to express their views including Aitzaz Ahsan. “What decision the CEC takes would be the decision of the party and also of Aitzaz Ahsan,” he added.
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Aitzaz had also stated that opposition’s resignations were not enough to dissolve the national and provincial assemblies, as the ruling PTI needed only 172 members in the National Assembly, adding only 84 members – required to maintain the quorum of the 342-member Lower House of the Parliament – was enough to run the house.