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• National Assembly, Senate sittings derailed after PPP leads walkout; Sherry tells ruling party not to take their alliance ‘for granted’
• PTI advises PPP to move no-confidence resolution against PM; Zardari taps Naqvi to find ‘way out’
ISLAMABAD: The ongoing confrontation between ruling allies — PML-N and PPP — continued to disrupt parliamentary proceedings on Monday, as both houses of parliament were adjourned without any agenda items being taken up.
In the Senate and the National Assembly, quorum was pointed out by the opposition PTI following walkouts by PPP lawmakers, who wished to register their protest over Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s recent outburst.
As soon as the PPP members, led by Raja Pervez Ashraf, started walking out of the National Assembly hall, PTI’s Asad Qaiser took the floor and termed the move “friendly fire”.
He went on to ask the PPP to move a no-trust motion against PM Shehbaz Sharif. “I assure you that the PTI will support you in this vote of no confidence,” declared Mr Qaiser.
PPP’s Agha Rafiuallah pointed out the lack of quorum, but Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah, who also belongs to the PPP, declared the house was in order after a headcount.
At this point, the PTI members also staged a walkout, leaving behind Nisar Jatt to again point out the quorum. The deputy speaker was left with no other option but to adjourn the sitting till Thursday evening.
Similarly, in the Senate, PTI’s Saifullah Abro pointed out the lack of quorum when Deputy Chairman Syedal Khan Naser did not give him the floor, saying that party’s parliamentary leader Ali Zafar had already spoken.
Senate proceedings
At the outset of the sitting, PPP’s Sherry Rehman, without naming the Punjab chief minister, expressed her concerns over the “divisive rhetoric emerging from Punjab towards Sindh”. She said the federation needed stability at a time when there were threats at the border and 6.5 million people, mostly from Punjab, had been badly affected in the floods. “The ongoing war of words between Punjab and Sindh is obviously affecting the unity and the coalition,” she said. However, she said, it became difficult “when someone crosses the red line and plays the Punjab card”. “A coalition cannot be run by insulting others,” Ms Rehman said.
“When you apologise, it raises your stature,” the PPP senator said in her apparent reference to last week’s speech of Maryam Nawaz in which she had categorically stated that she would never apologise to the PPP over her remarks.
“It deeply troubled me that from Punjab, the criticism didn’t stop at governance, it extended to [PPP] Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, questioning his credentials and commitment to Pakistan,” said Ms Rehman.
“That’s not acceptable. You can’t hold press conferences and hurl accusations at our leadership and then expect silence. Of course, our jiyalas will respond. When you unfairly attack PPP leadership, they will answer — firmly, but responsibly,” she said.
She said the PPP had only suggested using the Benazir Income Support Programme for flood relief, but regretted that its proposal was being taken as an “interference”.
“We didn’t ask for anything for ourselves. We only asked that aid reach people who need it most,” she said. “We did not start this war of words. This is not the way to run a coalition. I am appalled that the security of our parliamentary leader in Punjab has been withdrawn... What message is being given to the coalition partners?” she said.
“We don’t want to create a crisis for the federal government but after abusing our leadership, you cannot take our support for granted,” she concluded.
Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar expressed optimism that current differences between the PPP and the PML-N would eventually be resolved in an amicable manner. He urged the opposition PTI not to be overjoyed by the present situation, saying political difference was a normal phenomenon in a democracy. He said President Asif Zardari had taken cognisance of the issue and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif were also committed to reconciliation.
PTI’s Ali Zafar took both the PPP and the PML-N to task, accusing them of indulging in the war of words only to hide their “inefficiencies and corruption”. He challenged the leaders of the two parties to visit the flood-hit areas without protocol. He said that at a time when the World Bank had issued a warning about the “food scarcity”, the government parties were busy infighting.
National Assembly
In the lower house of parliament, PPP’s Raja Pervez Ashraf lashed out at the PML-N for ‘the PPP bashing’. He said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had praised the Punjab chief minister, but the other side had started “fanning hatred and provincialism”.
“We want to strengthen the federation and no confrontation from any part of the country,” he said, adding, “But it should not be considered as our weakness.”
Meanwhile, sources said President Asif Ali Zardari had called Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to Karachi to ask him to “mediate” between the two parties.
“President Asif Ali Zardari spoke to Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi over the phone to discuss the recent tensions between the Sindh and Punjab governments. The president has called the interior minister to Karachi for an urgent meeting in this regard,” the PPP media cell also said in an ‘X’ post.
Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2025
