ISLAMABAD: All opposition parties met here on Monday to devise a joint strategy for the budget sessions of the two houses of parliament, but, according to sources, failed to reach an agreement.
But the parties invited for the meeting by Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan decided to meet again on Friday morning, hours before presentation of the budget, to consider the same agenda of taking a unified position on the budget and implementation of the May 14 resolution of the two houses of parliament on the May 2 US raid in Abbottabad.The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, which has become the second largest opposition group in parliament after the PML-Q joined the ruling coalition, has reservations over the PML-N move to unite the opposition parties on one platform because the two parties have been in a row over the position of leader of opposition in the Senate.
“No such decision of a united opposition or taking a united stand has been taken in the meeting,” JUI-F General Secretary Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri told Dawn after the meeting held in the chamber of Chaudhry Nisar at the Parliament House.
But, he said there was a consensus that all opposition parties should put pressure on the government to immediately set up an independent commission to investigate the Abbottabad raid.
He said it was on the PML-N's demand that they had agreed that the constitution of the commission should be the starting point for implementation of the resolution.
Moreover, he said, the JUI-F had informed all opposition parties that a three-day meeting of the party's Majlis-i-Shoora had been convened by Maulana Fazlur Rehman in Islamabad from June 10 and only after that meeting the party would be able to make any commitment to them.
Replying to a question, Maulana Haideri admitted that his party was not on good terms with the PML-N over the issue of the leader of opposition in the Senate.
He said his party had a clear majority in the Senate but the PML-N had been manoeuvring to get the opposition post despite having only seven senators.
Aftab Sherpao of the PPP-S, Prof Khurshid Ahmed of Jamaat-i-Islami, Maulana Ataur Rehman of the JUI-F, Abdul Rahim Mandokhel of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Zahid Hamid of the PML-N also attended the meeting.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.