ISLAMABAD, Oct 3: PPP parliamentary leader in the Senate Mian Raza Rabbani is likely to resign as opposition leader in the upper house on his return from London after losing support of other opposition parties grouped in the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
The sources in the party said that Mr Rabbani had taken the decision to quit the opposition leader office in the Senate after getting reports that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), a major component of the APDM, was considering to withdraw its support to Mr Rabbani after the PPP’s decision of not joining the combined opposition and for holding negotiations with the military regime.
The sources said that Mr Rabbani had been advised by some senior party leaders to quit the office of the opposition leader before he was asked by the other opposition parties to do so.
Mr Rabbani is currently in London in connection with the joint meeting of the PPP’s Central Executive Committee and the Federal Council.
It may be mentioned that MMA senator from Balochistan Dr Ismail Buledi had disclosed on Tuesday that the religious alliance would ask the other APDM component parties to withdraw the support to Mr Rabbani as he believed the PPP was no more an opposition party after holding negotiations with the Musharraf regime on power sharing.
He said the MMA was previously supporting Mr Rabbani only in order to maintain unity among opposition ranks.
Presently the government has 58 and opposition 42 senators in the 100-member Senate. Out of the 42 opposition senators, 21 belong to the MMA and only nine to the PPP.
After passage of the controversial 17th Amendment in 2003, the PPP formed a group of opposition parties minus the MMA with the name of the Democratic Alliance which nominated Mr Rabbani as the candidate for opposition leader. The Democratic Alliance comprised the PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).
However, during the multi-party conference (MPC) held in London in March this year, all the parties of the Democratic Alliance joined the newly-formed APDM with the exception of the PPP.