ISLAMABAD: The main opposition Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) has finally decided to attend the multiparty conference to be called by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to chalk out a joint strategy against the government.

The decision was taken by PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif at a meeting of senior party leaders during his first visit to the Parliament House on Tuesday after an interval of almost a year. However, it was decided that Nawaz Sharif and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif would not attend the conference. A delegation to be headed by Senator Raja Zafarul Haq will represent the PML-N.

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, chairman of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), has already announced that his party will take part in the conference. But he and his father former president Asif Ali Zardari will not attend it.

Nawaz, Shahbaz, Zardari and Bilawal will not participate in the event

The conference was to be held on Oct 31, but due to uncertainty about participation of the PML-N, it has been delayed and a final date has yet to be announced.

It will be the fifth conference to be organised against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government — four called by JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl and one by PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif.

The opposition believes that the PTI government is not the real representative of the people and lacks the capability to run the affairs of the state. The opposition parties have also been criticising the government for its faulty economic policies and decisions and claim that the ruling PTI has made people’s lives miserable by increasing the prices of gas and electricity leading to inflation.

The first multiparty conference was called soon after the July 25 elections to get endorsement for the point of view of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal — an alliance of politico-religious parties — that no member of the National Assembly from the opposition party should take the oath.

In the second conference, no decision was taken on the issue and in the third majority of the opposition parties differed from MMA’s desire and later all of their MNAs took the oath. The forth conference was hosted by Shahbaz Sharif in Murree in which PPP’s Aitzaz Ahsan was declared a joint candidate of the opposition in the election of the country’s president which was won by PTI’s Dr Arif Alvi.

Upon his arrival at the Parliament House, Nawaz Sharif was received by his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif. Both went straight to the chamber of Shahbaz Sharif, who is also Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, and stayed there for half an hour. They were accompanied by senior party leaders, including Raja Zafarul Haq, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Khawaja Asif, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Rana Tanvir and Ahsan Iqbal.

After a brief meeting, Nawaz Sharif went to the senators’ banquet hall, where he hosted a lunch for senior leaders of different parties. He also met PPP leader Syed Khursheed Shah.

Inside sources told Dawn that Nawaz Sharif did not touch political maters during his chat with the senior party leaders and even after coming out of the hall, he refused to answer questions of reporters who were waiting for him outside.

When Nawaz Sharif left the Parliament House, Shahbaz Sharif told the media that a delegation of the PML-N to be headed by Raja Zafarul Haq would take part in the JUI-F’s multiparty conference.

When contacted, Bilawal Bhutto’s spokesman Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said it had been decided that a delegation of the PPP would attend the conference.

Mr Bilawal and Mr Zardari had not taken part in any of the four conferences held earlier.

In a statement, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf of the PPP said that holding of such conference by political parties was a good tradition, adding that the JUI-F chief was working on developing a consensus among all political parties on the event.

Mr Asharf said it was the PPP which had set a tradition to appoint the opposition leader as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly. “We have given the slot to then opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ai Khan during the PPP government in 2008,” he added.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2018