ISLAMABAD: In a significant development, the country’s major political parties on Thursday decided to field joint candidates for three coveted offices of the prime minister, National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker under an agreed formula against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) nominees, besides announcing formation of a grand alliance on a single point agenda of launching a protest campaign inside and outside parliament against alleged rigging in the recently held general elections.

The participants of a multi-party conference (MPC) also constituted a 16-member joint action committee to prepare terms of reference (ToR), a plan for future cooperation and a joint strategy for the protest campaign.

Briefing reporters about the decisions taken by the parties at the MPC held at the residence of outgoing NA speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Sherry Rehman disclosed that they had decided that her party would nominate the candidate for the office of speaker, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) for the deputy speaker’s office and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) would field the candidate for the office of prime minister.

PML-N to nominate candidate for PM’s post, PPP for speaker’s office and MMA for deputy speaker’s slot

The first meeting of the action committee will be held on Friday (today) in the office of Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Sherry Rehman.

Sources told Dawn that there was almost a consensus on the name of Syed Khursheed Shah as candidate for the office of the NA speaker, whereas PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif would contest for the PM’s office against PTI chairman Imran Khan. They said the MMA was yet to suggest any name of its candidate for the office of the deputy speaker.

The sources said that during the meeting of the action committee, the members would also suggest a proper name for the newly formed grand opposition alliance. They said a few names like “Front Against Rigging” and “Alliance of Democratic Forces” were discussed at the conference, but finally it was left to the action committee to decide a name in its first meeting.

They said the committee would also suggest the strategy for the NA session in which the members would take oath, besides reviewing the option of declaring a ‘black day’ in the country on the day of Imran Khan’s oath taking as prime minister.

The action committee comprises Sherry Rehman and Qamar Zaman Kaira of the PPP, Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Saad Rafique and Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the PML-N, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and Mian Iftikhar Hussain of the Awami National Party (ANP), Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Liaquat Baloch and Awais Noorani of the MMA, Aneesazeb Tahirkheli and Barrister Masroor of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP), Usman Kakar and Raza Muhammad Raza of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and Malik Ayub and Mir Kabir of the National Party (NP).

Talking to the media, Ms Rehman said they had already decided to lodge protest inside and outside parliament as they had rejected the results of “rigged polls”. She said that despite having different agendas and manifestos, these parties had agreed to adopt a joint strategy against the rigging.

Alleging that a particular party had been supported through “interference”, she declared that they would “fight the puppet government”.

ANP’s Iftikhar Hussain claimed that they were “in a position to form the government and we will win”. “We are in offensive mood and not in defensive mood.”

PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal said that it was for the first time in the country’s history that all major parties had rejected the elections from one platform within a week after the polls. He said the rigging was actually an attack on the foundations of the country.

MMA general secretary Liaquat Baloch said all the parties had decided to go to parliament and make joint efforts to “protect the Constitution and democracy”.

He said they had made the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) all powerful, but it allegedly surrendered its powers to someone else, adding that it was perhaps the first election of its kind in which the winners felt ashamed and the losers were trying to find the clue as to why they had been kept out of the race.

It may be recalled that in the first MPC that had been convened by the MMA soon after the July 25 elections, the participants had discussed the option of boycotting the oath-taking session of the NA as a mark of protest against alleged rigging. The proposal had mainly come from the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F). However, both the PPP and PML-N later persuaded JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to reverse his decision, saying that the parties should not vacate their space.

Meanwhile, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has instructed the party office-holders to submit all pre-poll, election day and post-poll election complaints to the PPP Central Election Cell.

The PPP chairman said the party was committed to democracy and had offered sacrifices for it.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2018