Opposing the proposal of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday said that the opposition parties should not resign from the Parliament.
Talking to journalists following a dinner at Zardari House in Islamabad, Bilawal said that a wrong impression was being created that some senators belonging to the opposition parties had deliberately wasted their votes.
He maintained that all the senators belonging to PDM had cast their votes to Yousaf Raza Gillani. There was no split within the opposition alliance, he said, adding the all the opposition parties were united under the umbrella of PDM.
Earlier, the PDM head Maulana Fazlur Rehman had conveyed a suggestion of resigning from the assemblies to the head of the parties included in the opposition alliance.
According to sources privy to the discussion within the opposition alliance, the PDM head had reached out to PML-N General Secretary Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and consulted over the option to resign from the assemblies.
“Besides leading long march to Islamabad, the PDM should mull over resigning from the assemblies,” the JUI-F chief had said during the conversation adding that the move could prove effective against the incumbent government.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a senior leader of PPP and a prominent lawyer, has 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.
PPP’s senior leader Aitzaz Ahsan wonders who is advising PDM on the idea of resignations. Like we said, it’s all drama and we don’t think they have guts to give resignations. #ڈرامے_نہیں_استعفے_دو pic.twitter.com/AUGDq4eQhk
— PTI (@PTIofficial) December 8, 2020
The Nawaz-league has now confronted the third force too, he said, adding that the party which favours 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, 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.
PPP will not resign, a dominant view?
It is important to note that in an interview with BBC, Bilawal said that taking names of military leaders was Nawaz Sharif’s personal choice. It was decided in the PDM agenda to use the ‘establishment’ word and not to take the name of any national institution, he said.
Nawaz Sharif blamed the COAS and DG ISI for ousting him through ‘controlling and dictating the courts’. It was not for the first time that Nawaz slammed the security establishment for ‘political engineering’. On September 20, he claimed that then DG ISI approached him and asked him to step-down.
However, former DG ISI, retired Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam, has said he never asked for the resignation of former premier and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif in 2014. “I never sent anyone to convey any such message to [Nawaz], this is absolutely wrong,” he said while speaking to The News.
Similarly, PPP Co-chairman and former president Asif Ali Zardari said during the PDM meeting that the coalition should be clear about its goals and should not open up new fronts.
Attending the online meeting – which was held to review the ongoing political situation in the country and to chalk out the 11-party opposition alliance’s future strategy – Zardari stressed that the PDM should stick to a clear goal, as opening up new fronts simultaneously would reap no results.
Political commentators are of the view that the PPP is unlikely to block Islamabad as the PML-N and JUI-F have reportedly plan. “PPP will soon find a graceful exit but may continue to offer its moral support to the anti-government campaign. The party is divided on some basic questions and Bilawal won’t be in a position to take any bold decision. Let’s not forget the fact the PPP did the same when Maulana came to dislodge PTI’s government in 2019,” a source told GVS.
The PTI leaders have already been claiming that the PPP will not support the PML-N’s do or die scenario in the long run. “PPP will never go for the resignations. I can give you my words,” then Federal Minister for Water and Power, Faisal Vawda, told Kashif Abbasi on ARY News.