Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) are at odds after former’s Senate Opposition leader move.
The two primary opposition parties and members of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – 11-member anti-government alliance PML-N and PPP are at odds following Yousuf Raza Gilani’s election as Senate opposition leader.
Expressing his views on Saturday (today), PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz criticized PPP for its unilateral move of electing ex-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as opposition leader in the upper house.
The lines have been drawn now. Only PML-N and JUI-F are ‘real’ opposition parties, she said.
Maryam Nawaz also claimed that Asif Ali Zardari once offered to make Pervaiz Elahi the next Chief Minister of Punjab, an offer turned down by Nawaz Sharif.
Following Maryam Nawaz’s criticism, PPP co-chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari held a press-briefing defending his party’s move regarding election of Yousuf Raza Gilani as Senate opposition leader.
Bilawal Bhutto noted that Azam Nazeer Tarrar – PML-N’s candidate for Leader of the Opposition in Senate, was in fact a ‘controversial’ person and it was PPP’s ‘right’ to appoint one of his party members as the opposition leader in the upper house as they are in majority on the opposition benches.
Everyone had aspired for Yousuf Raza Gilani to be the Senate chairman, however, there should have been no reservations in him getting elected as the Leader of the Opposition, he said.
Parliamentary tradition and history advocates that the single largest party in the Senate had the right to get its candidate elected as Senate chairman and Leader of the Opposition, said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
The development comes as PPP leader Yousuf Raza Gilani was appointed as Senate’s opposition leader on Friday march 26th a day earlier.
PPP had filed the request for the post of Senate Opposition leader amid differences among the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) component parties for the office.
یوسف رضا گیلانی سینیٹ میں قائد حزب اختلاف مقرر, سینیٹ سیکریٹریٹ نے نوٹی فیکیشن جاری کردیا pic.twitter.com/86bUNNbtgY
— waqar satti 🇵🇰 (@waqarsatti) March 26, 2021
It is to be noted that former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had won in March 3rd Senate election against government backed Abdul Hafeez Shaikh from Islamabad’s general seat.
