PPP not to demand vote of confidence

Warraich and Raja Riaz vow to be a true opposition.

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday decided not to call for a vote of confidence against the Punjab chief minister.

The decision was taken during the party meeting held at the Punjab Assembly (PA). However, PPP Punjab president, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, and parliamentary leader Raja Riaz – who will in all likeliness be nominated as the Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly – vowed to be honest to their role as the opposition.

During the meeting it was suggested that Raja Riaz, the PPP parliamentary party leader in the House, be chosen as the leader of opposition. The recommendation, however, needs the approval of President Asif Ali Zardari, who is expected to nominate the parliamentary leader in PA after meeting PPP Punjab leaders in Islamabad. The meeting has yet to be scheduled.

Warraich, during the press conference after the meeting, said, “PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif has not learnt from his past mistakes. He is promoting politics of turncoats yet again.” He called Sharif’s decision “harmful to democracy”. He said that Sharif would be responsible for the political uncertainty in the country because of his adventurism.

Speaking about Unification Bloc, the PPP Punjab president said that it was regrettable that politicians who had been elected on a party ticket switched sides. He advised the PML-Q dissidents to rethink their decision. “If they do not, they will be greeted by the PPP as lotas in the assembly,” Warraich added.

Elaborating on how the PPP would be an effective opposition, Warraich vowed to expose corruption in Daanish Schools project and “the so-called welfare projects like Mobile Health Units and Sasti Roti”.

“The federal government will never release Raymond Davis. If Davis is released, responsibility for that will lie with the Punjab government,” he added.

“The Sharifs are worried that they won’t be able to win the next general elections because in PPP’s government the foreign reserves have touched $17.5 billion. Our exports stand at $22 billion,” Warraich told reporters.

Raja Riaz, for his part, assured the nation that the PPP would present its case before them. “The PPP will give an application to the speaker that we be allowed to nominate the leader of opposition before the start of the next session, which will start from March 8,” Riaz said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 2^nd, 2011.