Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is to determine whether to respond to Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) PDM’s show-cause notice or not.
PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira told ARY News said that they could not go ahead while toeing a single party’s agenda in the PDM. “The show-cause served to the PPP was aimed at pressuring us,” he said while terming it an odd attempt.
“We will respond to the PDM’s show-cause notice and will not let it go casually,” he said while asking as to why the PDM’s meeting was convened while leaving out the two parties.
He said that the PDM meeting that issued show-cause was headed by the PML-N and Maulana Fazlur Rehman was not approached over the matter. “We cannot go along under these circumstances,” he said while announcing that a final decision in this regard would be taken by the party leadership.
On April 05, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari held consultations with the party leaders over a show-cause notice served by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
According to sources privy to the details of the meeting, the discussion led to division among the party over two narratives with one side asking the leadership not to respond to the notice while the others calling for a stern reply.
“The meeting rejected the show-cause notice served by the PDM with some members suggesting that no response should be given on it,” they said adding that the party men were of the view that show-cause to PPP is of no worth as PPP is not answerable to any political party.
Read more: Why is Maryam Nawaz silent? Severe mental stress over plight of Sharif Family
On the other hand, sources said that some PPP members suggested a stern response to the show-cause notice, saying a prompt and firm response should be given.
Can PPP and PML-N stay together?
Although the PDM was created with an apparent purpose to topple Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government, yet the main opposition parties i.e. PPP and PML-N now seem to victims of internal fights as a result of ruthless power politics.
The ruling party has persistently argued that this alliance of the opposition parties is “unnatural” and cannot sustain. PM’s Special Assistant Usman Dar said in a talk-show that the alliance is without any ideology and has no potential to threaten the government. “You will soon witness their internal fights,” he said.
Notably, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday mocked PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and said that “there is a family in Lahore who used to get selected in the past”. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari gave this statement while talking to the media after meeting with Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq in Lahore.
Similarly, sources and media reports said Zardari during the meeting asked Nawaz to return to Pakistan before the joint opposition could go with the nuclear option of resigning from the assemblies in order to mount pressure on the PTI-led government.
The crucial session of the PDM was held amid divisions within the alliance over the issue of submitting resignations from the assemblies at a time when its planned long march was just two weeks away.
Zardari, who like Nawaz addressed the meeting virtually, reportedly told the PML-N chief: “Mian sahab, we will hand over the resignations to you when you return home.”
Nawaz has been living in London since November 2019 after he was allowed to leave the country for medical treatment.
Zardari further said if Nawaz wanted the opposition parties to resign en masse, “then not only us, but everyone will have to go to jail”.
Read More: Maryam Nawaz assumes charge of her ‘apolitical’ Instagram account
Talking about this month’s hotly contested Senate elections, Zardari said the opposition parties had challenged the government in the polls but regretted that PML-N Senator-elect Ishaq Dar, who is living in the UK in self-exile, had not participated in the voting, according to reports.
“Nawaz Sharif sahib, return to the country along with Ishaq Dar; we will fight together,” the PPP leader was quoted as saying during the meeting.