|
|
|
| March 3, 2003 | Monday | Zul Hijjah 29, 1423 |
Opposition still undecided on leaders’ choice
ISLAMABAD, March 2: The policy differences are keeping big opposition parties divided and far from an agreed choice of opposition leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate, political sources said on Sunday.
They said the two main opposition camps differed mainly on issues of foreign policy, particularly over Pakistan’s present key role in the US-led international coalition against terrorism, but they were also not likely to see eye to eye with each other on various domestic issues.
However, the 15-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) led by the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) alliance of six Islamic parties are united in opposing President Pervez Musharraf being president while wearing army uniform and the constitutional amendments he has decreed to assume sweeping powers.
In moves seemingly amusing to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) (PML-Q), both the PPP and the MMA have made rival claims to the prestigious office of the opposition leader in the National Assembly, leaving it to speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain to determine who should lead the opposition to Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s three-month-old government.
A similar situation is likely to emerge in the 100-seat Senate, which was elected late last month in two phases, giving the PML-Q and its allies a slim majority of 53 seats with MMA being number two with 18 seats but short of the combined total of 23 of other opposition parties.
COMPROMISE: Political sources said ARD chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan was trying for a compromise between the two sides that could give the opposition leader’s slot in the National Assembly to the PPP and in the Senate to the MMA and a similar exchange in the two houses for deputy opposition leaders.
But the choice of an opposition leader in the National Assembly has acquired urgency as the lower house, elected four months ago, started its regular session last week with its members still seated in alphabetical order of their names without a demarcation of treasury and opposition benches because there was no opposition leader.
“Our case is very strong,” a PPP spokesman said about the candidature of party leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim for the opposition leader, which rules say must be given to the single largest opposition party as determined by the speaker.
But the spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said the government was likely to create hurdles in pursuing a policy to sideline the mainstream parties.
MMA chief Maulana Shah Ahmad Noorani told Dawn on Saturday that his alliance would not withdraw the candidature of its secretary- general and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for the same office.
The PPP spokesman, Farhatullah Babar, said that his party’s contention was that it had emerged as the second largest party in October elections with 80 seats compared to MMA’s 64.
|
|
|
|
