LAHORE: PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal has asked the PPP to respect the decision taken by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) regarding nomination of opposition leader in the Senate.

“In the PDM it had been decided that the opposition leader in the Senate would be from PML-N. Now the PPP should respect this decision,” Mr Iqbal said while talking to reporters here on Tuesday. He visited the Fata students’ camp outside the Governor House here. The students had been protesting against a couple of public universities for stopping their scholarships.

He said the nation would not forgive the one who would damage the PDM.

When asked to speak out on Bilawal’s comment about Maryam, Mr Iqbal said he did not want to comment on it. He said the PDM’s target was (Prime Minister) Imran Khan.

The PML-N and PPP that are important components of the 10-paty PDM alliance seem to be poles apart on the issue of the Senate’s key office. The two parties had started lobbying for the office and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari talked to the heads of some smaller parties and on Monday the Jamaat-i-Islami which has one vote in the Senate, promised to support the PPP’s candidate for the slot.

The PPP previously had agreed to give the office of the opposition leader to PML-N in return for nomination of Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani for the office of Senate chairman but after his defeat at the hands of Sadiq Sanjrani the situation changed.

PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz had said the decision that the opposition leader in the Senate would be from PML-N had been taken by a PDM committee and it had nothing to do with the outcome of the elections of Senate chairman and deputy chairman.

Ahsan Iqbal further said the National Accountability Bureau’s cases against the opposition leaders were “vengeance-based.” He said the country’s economy had been destroyed because of the incompetence of Imran Khan and his team but the premier had been only stuck to one line mantra “I will not give NRO to the opposition.”

He said if all opposition parties resigned from assemblies this selected government would fall within no time. “We had asked the PPP to first resign from the National Assembly if it did not want to dissolve the Sindh government,” he said.

Mr Iqbal mocked the premier on his claim of good governance in Punjab asking on which merit incompetent chief minister and his cabinet members had been appointed.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2021