Two main PTI allies Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan Muslim League- Quaid (PML-Q) expressed reservations over the government not consulting coalition partners on important matters.
While giving an interview to a TV channel, MQM leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said the government did not take MQM into confidence over the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
“We are not taken into confidence on important legislation. They give us the documents on the eleventh hour. How can we support such legislation?” Siddiqui said.
He further revealed that MQM found out about the EVM legislation through the media. He also said that later Science and Technology Minister Shibli Faraz demonstrated the use of the EVMs to MQM. However, several concerns were raised regarding the EVMs which have not yet been answered.
Read more: The electronic voting machine controversy in Pakistan
The MQM leader also expressed reservations regarding the government’s performance pertaining to the recent price hike in Pakistan. Maqbool Siddiqui said MQM cannot share the responsibility of bad governance by the ruling PTI.
“If they (the government) do not take their allies on board, we have no option but to make a decision,” he said, hinting that the MQM could part ways with the government if it did not mend its ways.
PML-Q Information Secretary Kamil Ali Agha also expressed a similar reservation of his party and said the prime minister did not consult the PML-Q in important decision making. “When the government needs our support, like for passage of the budget, it talks to us otherwise not,” he added.
“If the government does not mend its ways we will have to take an ultimate decision,” he warned.
PML-Q expresses very strong reservations over the treatment it’s members are getting in Punjab. Not a good sign for the government when Q starts grumbling.
— Salman Masood (@salmanmasood) November 12, 2021
Opposition united against PTI government?
Important to note, the Opposition alliance PDM once again kick-started its campaign against the government.
Last week, PDM decided to launch protests across the country as well as a long march towards Islamabad against the government and inflation, according to a statement issued on Saturday by PML-N leader and the alliance’s secretary-general Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
PPP and PDM’s relations also witnessed a thaw as PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto met with PDM leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman to discuss the country’s political situation. Incidentally, this was their first meeting since PPP quit PDM earlier this year. With the two leaders meeting, talks began of PPP possibly rejoining PDM.
Read more: Will PPP respond to PDM’s show-cause notice?
Bilawal Bhutto meeting Maulana Fazlur Rehman. PPP might return to PDM. PML-Q holding a central committee meeting. PML-F distances itself from the govt while MQM-P is threatening the govt as well. What's next?
— Wajahat Kazmi (@KazmiWajahat) November 12, 2021
However, PPP Information Secretary Faisal Kareem Kundi informed that PPP did not have any plans to re-join the opposition alliance.