Opposition converging on national issues, says Nisar

Opposition leader says president's address only fulfilled constitutional requirement, did not speak on major issues.

ISLAMABAD:

Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Tuesday that opposition parties were ‘converging’ on national issues but kept it vague whether or not a grand political alliance was in the making to seek the ouster of the PPP-led coalition government.

“We are agreeing on the lowest common denominator… and it is a positive development,” Nisar told a news conference following boycott of the annual address of President Asif Zardari to the joint sitting of parliament.

“It will be too early to say that a grand alliance can emerge,” he said when asked if there was a possibility of all opposition parties taking their ‘cooperation’ further to seek the government’s ouster. However, he did not rule out the possibility of such a thing happening either.

Nisar, who belongs to the PML-N, predicted that the PPP-led coalition government would not be able to complete its constitutional term. But in the same breath he said that there is no constitutional and democratic way to remove it.

“As long as this government has a majority in the assembly, no one can dislodge it through democratic means,” Nisar added.

Nisar’s comments came amid reports that the establishment wanted to unite all right-wing parties in an alliance similar to the one that had defeated the now-ruling PPP in the 1990 general elections.

Speculations about the establishment of such an alliance were fuelled by a meeting here a couple of weeks ago of top leaders from all the groups hostile to the political and economic policies of the PPP government. Though all of them  denied, a follow-up secret meeting was also held a week later.

The PML-N had already decided to seek fresh elections ahead of polls for half of Senate seats scheduled for March next year.

The opposition leader said that all opposition parties would come up with a ‘joint strategy’ on major issues facing the nation in future.

“Enough is enough… the problem is not of a single party now. It’s of Pakistan. The country faces severe dangers. You will see us (opposition) united and proactive,” Nisar said.

Earlier Nisar defended the PML-N’s strategy of boycotting the parliament session as against the party’s threats to ‘disrupt’ the presidential address. “A very positive message has been sent out to the nation,” he added.

Nisar criticised President Zardari for ignoring public issues, like corruption, inflation and load shedding. The speech was made only to fulfill a constitutional obligation, he added.

He added that the president did not speak a word about the release of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who had shot dead two Pakistanis in a busy marketplace of Lahore in January, this year. Nisar demanded that a judicial commission be set up to investigate the matter and fix responsibility for Davis’ release.

The opposition leader also came down hard on the government for, what he called, its failure to check increasing target killings in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2011.