ISLAMABAD, Aug 4: The People’s Party Parliamentarians on Monday contested the government’s assertion that the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy did not exist in the Parliament because its component parties had not contested elections as a single entity.

The ARD’s component parties, the PPP contended, had a legal right to form a parliamentary group in the Senate and the National Assembly.

Senator Mian Raza Rabbani, leader of the PPP’s parliamentary party in the Senate in a statement said: “It is incorrect for the government and other quarters to suggest that the ARD does not have an existence in Parliament because (its) component parties did not contest elections as an alliance.

“There is no provision in any law ... or the rules of procedure and conduct of business in the Senate or the National Assembly that prevents a party or parties from forming such an alliance subsequent to elections for coordination of their activities and business in both the Houses.

“The flaunting of this absurd theory is against the principles and practices of parliamentary democracy. In parliaments around the world, new alliances are made and unmade for the achievement of democratic objectives,” he said.

“If the logic, that an alliance cannot be made in (the) Parliament after elections is accepted, then the Jamali government would have no justification to stay because the PML-Q does not, on its own, have a simple majority to form a government. The ruling coalition is a coalition of parties that did not contest the elections under one symbol.”

“Furthermore, with this logic, the Patriots stand disqualified ... as they contested elections on the ticket of one party, defected and allegedly formed a new party.”

“This argument also does not hold for the position of the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and the Senate. The Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 1992 very clearly states, “is for the time being leader of the majority of members in the Opposition”.

The Senate rules, though silent, but the same precedent had been followed, he said, adding the only qualification “is that he has to be the leader of the majority of the members sitting in the opposition.”