KHAIRPUR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday said that the opposition parties should keep differences aside and fight together against the incumbent government.
Addressing a press conference in Khairpur, Bilawal said, “Opposition should keep differences aside and focus on opposing the government. PPP is working on this since the first day and the opposition’s focus should be on the government.”
“I know that it is the propaganda and effort of some parties to present the PPP in such a way that we did some deal [with the establishment]. But you know our history. We don’t do this kind of politics, and I think that we should not blame each other.”
He further said, “PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has a very important responsibility to keep his allies together and he does not take side of one party. I know that Maulana is a very senior politician as he has experience and he won’t allow small differences in opinions of parties to deal damage to his alliance.”
“We are happy when PML-N wins any by-election so PML-N should also be happy on PPP’s success and we shouldn’t deal damage to such a grand purpose for which we’ve collected because of small jealousies.”
Bilawal also said his party would talk and engage with whoever the PML-N nominates to be its leader and it does not want to be involved in any fight.
He said the PML-N held important positions of leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly so a contact would need to be maintained with them while engaging in parliamentary politics.
PPP DELAYS CEC MEETING TO DISCUSS RESIGNATIONS:
Meanwhile, the PPP postponed its Central Executive Committee’s (CEC) meeting, scheduled for April 5, as both the upper and the lower house of the Parliament would be in session on that day.
Senior PPP leader Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari announced this in a statement. He said as most of the members of PPP CEC are members of the Parliament and would be unable to attend the CEC meeting due to the session of both houses, the PPP chairman has postponed the meeting of CEC.
Reportedly, as a result, there would be further delay in pronouncement of PPP’s formal decision about en mass resignation and Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) long march.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 54 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the president has been pleased to summon the Senate to meet in the Parliament building, Islamabad, on Monday, the 5th April, 2021, at 10:00 a.m.,” stated a notification from the Senate Secretariat issued on Saturday.
Earlier it was reported that the rift between two major opposition parties – the PML-N and the PPP – over the office of the Senate’s leader of the opposition was deepened when five opposition parties, including the PML-N, agreed to form a separate bloc of 27 opposition senators in the upper house of parliament.
Serious differences had been emerged between the parties after the PPP appointed its stalwart Yusuf Raza Gilani as Senate’s opposition leader, apparently in violation of what had earlier been agreed upon in a PDM meeting.
Sources had said that in a meeting held in Islamabad on Friday, leaders of eight opposition parties agreed that “show cause notices” should be issued to the PPP and the ANP for disregarding the PDM’s decision.
They had said the parliamentary leaders of the eight parties decided that the show cause notices should be issued with the approval of PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
The eight parties had decided to first give a chance to the PPP and the ANP to explain their position and if they couldn’t satisfy then they will be expelled from the alliance. The parties had also agreed to hand over the leadership of the new bloc to Senator Azam Nazir Tarar, PML-N’s candidate for the position of Senate opposition leader.
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