ISLAMABAD: Senior leaders of the country’s two major political parties — the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — believe that the need for unity among the opposition parties has become even more crucial following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s first address to the nation and the inclusion of those ministers in his cabinet who had previously served under the military regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

When contacted to seek their comments on the prime minister’s address and the new federal cabinet, the PPP and PML-N leaders expressed concern over the inclusion of Mr Musharraf’s team members in the cabinet, terming it a direct threat to provincial autonomy, supremacy of parliament, trade unions and freedom of expression and the press.

Raza Rabbani, former Senate chairman and a PPP stalwart, said that the enormity of the economic and political crisis being faced by the country demanded a “grand national alliance of all democratic forces”.

Rabbani calls for formation of grand alliance of all democratic forces to tackle enormous economic and political crises

“The opposition must stop squabbling among itself on petty issues and realise the gravity of the situation,” Mr Rabbani said while referring to the differences between the PPP and the PML-N over nomination of candidates for different parliamentary and constitutional offices.

“This is even more important now when there is a cabinet which has some of Musharraf’s former colleagues,” he said, adding that “a united opposition can be an effective check in parliament while a divided opposition will be answerable to the people and history”.

Mr Rabbani said that the prime minister had mostly spoken about the subjects which fell in the domain of the provinces, giving an indication that the government might take steps that could nullify the benefits of the historic 18th Constitution Amendment which had granted more autonomy to the provinces.

After the PPP’s opposition to the nomination of Shahbaz Sharif as PML-N candidate for the office of prime minister, the gulf between the two opposition parties further widened after unilateral decision of the PPP to nominate Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan as its candidate for the post of president of Pakistan.

Reacting to the media reports that the PPP had decided to field Mr Ahsan in the Sept 4 presidential elections against the nominee of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Dr Arif Alvi, the PML-N had categorically stated that Mr Ahsan could not be considered a joint candidate of the opposition as the PPP had not consulted any of the parties sitting on the opposition benches before nominating Mr Ahsan.

The PML-N is also annoyed because the PPP has recently refused to vote for its president Shahbaz Sharif in the election for PM only because he had issued some controversial statements against the PPP leadership in the past whereas the PPP has now nominated a person, who had also passed some nasty remarks about illness of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his spouse Kulsoom Nawaz in the recent past.

Talking to Dawn, PML-N acting secretary general Ahsan Iqbal though agreed to Mr Rabbani’s views about the need for unity, he categorically declared that they could not vote for Mr Ahsan as the party workers were very angry because the PPP leader had made some controversial remarks about Kulsoom Nawaz who has been undergoing medical treatment in the United Kingdom.

“It is out of the question that we can vote for Aitzaz Ahsan,” said Mr Iqbal. He, however, expressed the hope that since the two parties had been in contact over the issue, they would be able to resolve the matter amicably.

Mr Iqbal said the PML-N wanted to see a consensus candidate for the office of president and it could even consider a PPP nominee other than Aitzaz Ahsan. He said the PPP had told them that it had not so far formally nominated Mr Ahsan.

The PML-N leader believed that the two parties would come closer in the near future as “there is no other option available to them”. He said both the parties believed that in the shape of Imran Khan, a government was being forcefully imposed on the people.

“The first speech of Mr Khan as prime minister has exposed the fact that he does not even know the rules of business for running the government,” said Mr Iqbal.

He said Mr Khan’s first address to the nation had proved that the PTI chairman was “immature” and it was because of the fact that he had never held any public office in the past.

The PML-N leader regretted that the prime minister had not touched a number of core issues like Kashmir, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, terrorism, energy and foreign policy.

Mr Iqbal said they did not want to topple the PTI government, but would continue their protest against alleged rigging in the elections and would expose it before the masses.

Almost same views were expressed by PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar when he said that the prime minister in his address had not even spoken about the civil-military relations, which was the biggest issue at the moment. He also criticised the prime minister for not speaking about the opposition’s demand for formation of a parliamentary commission to probe allegations of election rigging.

In reply to a question about the PPP-PML-N relations, Mr Babar said Syed Khursheed Shah was in contact with the N-League through former speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and the two parties were expected to hold a meeting soon on the issue. He said the PPP had not formally nominated Aitzaz Ahsan, but it had informed the PML-N and other parties that its leadership wanted to do so.

Mr Babar said the PPP had not voted for Shahbaz Sharif in the election of prime minister, but it had nominated him as the opposition leader in the National Assembly and even party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had put his signatures on Mr Sharif’s nomination.

The NA Secretariat on Monday issued a notification regarding appointment of Shahbaz Sharif as the opposition leader in the National Assembly.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2018

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