ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's two major parties - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party - are set to play an ARD-like opposition role in parliament as they have agreed on formulation of a “coordinated joint strategy”, if the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf manages to form its government at the Centre. The broad-based understanding on cooperation was reached during the first direct meeting between the leaders of the PML-N and PPP after the July 25 general elections here on Sunday.
“It was an ice-breaker,” said PML-N’s Mushahid Hussain Sayed, when asked about the outcome of the meeting. “It was a very good meeting and you can call it a meeting of the minds,” the PML-N leader said, adding that there was complete unanimity of views between the two parties that the “July 25 elections have been stolen.” He said both sides were of the view that they should “completely reject” the election results and should adopt “a coordinated joint opposition strategy” to give a tough time to the Imran Khan-led PTI government while staying inside parliament. He said the two parties would meet again as the PML-N had told the PPP representatives that it would inform them about its decision on a proposal of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) to boycott parliament. He said the PPP delegation had informed the PML-N that they were not in favour of boycotting parliament.
The PPP delegation comprised Yousuf Raza Gilani, Sherry Rehman, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Farhatullah Babar while the PML-N side was represented by Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Ayaz Sadiq, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Sardar Mahtab Ahmed Khan. Later, the PPP delegation also held talks with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and tried to persuade him to reverse his decision of boycotting parliament. Sherry Rehman said they had urged the Maulana not to boycott parliament because by “vacating the space we will be providing a walkover” to the PTI.
She said the parties had had a bad experience of boycotting the elections or parliament in the past, adding that the PPP had even questioned the credibility of the 2013 elections and the party leadership had dubbed them “RO elections”, yet they had participated fully in the parliamentary proceedings to strengthen democracy.
“We are very clear that democratic forces while condemning the polls have all the rights to sit on the seats for which they had fought very hard,” she said. In reply to a question, Rehman said consultations among the parties would continue and they were expected to have more sessions. Both the PPP and PML-N leaders said that so far they had not discussed any strategy for the upcoming elections for key parliamentary offices of the speaker and deputy speaker, adding that such minute modalities would be discussed at a later stage.
