PESHAWAR, Sept 18: In a major political development that could lead to a possible no-confidence motion against the MMA government, all opposition parties in the NWFP assembly have agreed to nominate Shehzada Gustasip Khan as leader of the opposition.

Credible sources told Dawn that the MPA from Mansehra was chosen as leader of the opposition at a meeting of the parliamentary party leaders of opposition groups in the NWFP assembly on Thursday in Islamabad.

“This could well be a harbinger of a possible no-confidence move against Chief Minister Durrani,” the source said.

The meeting, the source said, was attended by ANP’s Bashir Bilour, Abdul Akbar Khan of the PPP-P, Sikandar Hayat Sherpao of the PPP-S, Mushtaq Ghani of the PML-Q while Shehzada Gustasip Khan represented the five-member independent group of MPAs.

Anwar Kamal Marwat, who leads the PML-N group of parliamentarians, excused himself from the meeting as he was scheduled to speak at a press conference in Peshawar along with provincial party president Sahibzada Pir Sabir Shah.

Mr Kamal told Dawn that his party had withdrawn unconditional support to the MMA government. “The unconditional support stands withdrawn,” he said.

Asked whether his party would support Gustasip’s nomination as leadership of the opposition, the PML-N leader said: “If he has the support of the majority of opposition members, then I think this is not a bad decision. We support him.”

The leaders of opposition groups in the NWFP assembly are scheduled to hold a press conference on Friday in Peshawar to announce their support to the Gustasip’s nomination. “He is a consensus nominee,” the sources said.

The MPA from Mansehra, who in the past served as a minister in the Aftab Sherpao government, has been lobbying in the power circles to project himself as the only consensus candidate to lead the province in any future move to dislodge the MMA government.

The opposition groups were bitterly divided over the issue of choosing a joint opposition leader since the inception of the present assemblies.

In a dramatic move last week, the opposition groups finally decided to burry their internal acrimony and formed a joint bloc.

At a press conference last week, Anwar Kamal showed newsmen signatures of 54 opposition and independent MPAs on a petition announcing their resignation from all committees in the NWFP assembly in a protest over the government’s refusal to resurrect the defunct district development advisory committees.

But the petition has not yet been formally submitted to Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan.

Though the opposition parties deny that their joint bloc was a prelude to a possible no-confidence move against Chief Minister Durrani, PPP-P parliamentary leader Abdul Akbar Khan made a pointed remark that the opposition needed eight members to turn the tables on Mr Durrani.

The MMA has a total of 69 MPAs in a house of 124.