KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Thursday announced it would contact the allies of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in the centre claiming that many of them were not happy with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s policies and needed “political support” to take major decision of quitting the coalition.

Addressing a press conference at the camp office of Sindh education minister, the PPP central information secretary Syeda Nafisa Shah asked the government to stop worrying about the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and pay attention to its allies, the majority of whom were ready to part ways with the coalition, as she put it.

“Some key allies have already parted ways with the government,” she said. “The federal government should not worry about the PDM but its allies. We will now contact the government allies. The announcement of the long march has put the government under stress and panic. In that state of mind, it’s making all illegal and non-democratic moves just to suppress the opposition parties and their movement.”

She justified the recent decision of the party to take part in the upcoming Senate elections saying that contesting polls of the upper house of parliament would help protect the 18th Amendment and allow opposition legislators to challenge the “illegal” moves of the government on the floor of the house.

“We do not want to give an open field to a party which has compromised on the 18th Amendment,” she said. “Similarly we cannot allow this government to take over the islands of Sindh and Balochistan using the parliament and for that we need to be inside the parliament in all forms. These people want to make parliament hostage which we would not allow.”

Accompanied by Sindh minister Shehla Raza and senior PPP leader Aajiz Dhamra, Ms Shah said that the PPP believed in parliamentary democracy and it was crucial to be a part of it.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2021