Wheeling and dealing: PTI, MQM damaged opposition unity: Shah

Refutes claims that PPP takes solo flight and does not take PTI onboard on matters

ISLAMABAD: Opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah has said that the division in the opposition benches will benefit the government.

Addressing media-persons on Saturday, Shah once again criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for its attempts to remove him as opposition leader, saying the party had introduced divisions in the opposition.



He said that the PTI’s alliance with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) to replace him had caused irreparable damage to a united opposition.

Rebutting the claims that the Pakistan People Party (PPP) takes solo flight and does not take the PTI onboard on matters, Shah reminded Imran Khan’s party that the last PPP government had appointed Justice Fakrukhdin G Ebrahim as chief election commissioner on its advice.

“If the PTI had wanted an opposition leader of its choice, it could have asked me… I would have fulfilled their desire. It was wrong to divide the opposition,” he said.

The senior PPP leader said that apart from the PTI and the MQM-P, all the other parties belonging to the opposition benches were supporting him in the National Assembly.



The PTI and the MQM-P joined hands to change the opposition leader, with leaders of the two parties holding a meeting in Karachi recently. During the meeting, PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi and MQM-P chief Farooq Sattar expressed dissatisfaction with Shah and agreed on consulting other parties in the opposition over the matter.