PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja on Monday said the PPP and PML-N did not have any “actual plan” to form an opposition in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative (AJK) Assembly, calling them the “two sides of the same coin.”

His remarks come against the backdrop of political turmoil in AJK after 10 legislators — all elected on PTI tickets in the July 2021 general elections — announced on Sunday that they were joining the PPP, which has been eyeing the premier’s slot in the region. PPP and PML-N announced that the two have agreed to bring a no-confidence motion against the government in AJK.

Speaking to Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’, Raja said, “PPP and PM-LN are the two sides of the same coin; they have an alliance and do not intend on forming an actual opposition”.

“They are just each taking their respective turns right now,” he added.

In response to a question regarding chatter of a new opposition leader in the National Assembly and whether Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) will support PTI, PPP or PML-N in the process, the PTI leader said, “Considering the past, I don’t think they will go with us at the end, and whether they form an alliance with PPP or PMLN, I can not say anything about it but we (PTI) don’t really have any interest in it.”

“Our stance is that these assemblies are just a facade. People don’t trust them anymore, so they can keep doing what they want, and whoever becomes the next opposition, it does not make any difference.”

Earlier in the day, Bilawal met with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, where the two discussed the country’s political landscape.

The PPP chairman was accompanied by PPP leaders Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Humayun Khan and Jamil Soomro, while JUI-F’s Mualana Asad Mahmood attended the meeting as well.

As a result of the recent developments, the PPP now enjoys the support of 27 members, followed by the PML-N with nine, PTI with five, and two regional parties with one member each in the 53-member AJK assembly. The group of PTI renegades led by AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq was reduced to ten members.

Addressing a press conference with Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah today, PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said: “It has been decided that the current AJK govt, which we both parties were part of, has become a basis of creating a crisis instead of solving problems.”

“Now there is a consensus of opinion that a no-confidence motion will be brought against it on which the PPP and PML-N will be together,” Kaira added.