PDM decides to contest by-polls, defers decision on Senate election

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on Friday appeared to be conceding to the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) suggestion, as it decided to participate in the upcoming by-elections, but put off a decision about contesting the Senate elections.

The 11-party alliance in a meeting of the party heads at Jati Umra, in Lahore, also decided to hold protests at the offices of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) later this month.

Speaking at a news conference after a meeting of the top opposition leaders in Raiwind, PDM President Maulana Fazlur Rehman reiterated the alliance’s January 31 deadline for the government’s resignation, after which, he said, the opposition would unveil plans for a long march and resignations from the assemblies.

“The PDM has decided to take part in the by-elections,” Fazl told the media after chairing the meeting attended by the top leaders of the alliance’s constituent parties. However, on the Senate elections, he said the decision on the matter would be taken at a later stage.

The PDM meeting was held a day after its deadline for collecting resignations of lawmakers by the respective party leadership ended on December 31.

The PDM had also said last month that if the government did not quit by January 31, the opposition would hold a long march on Islamabad.

Last month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced holding of the by-polls on eight National Assembly and the provincial assembly seats. Similarly, half of the members of the Senate will retire in March, therefore, election would be held to elect new senators.

Last week, the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had decided to take part not only in by-polls but also in the Senate elections. The PPP said that it would ask the PDM to bring no-confidence motions against the PTI governments at the Centre and in the provinces.

At the news conference, Fazl – also the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) – ruled out any difference with the PPP. He said that the PPP leadership presented their suggestions along with the legal opinion and the political ramifications.

Fazl said that the PPP was moving according to the 26-point charter agreed upon during the all parties conference on September 20. He condemned, what he described as misreporting of developments related to the PDM and its constituent parties in the electronic media.

When asked specifically that the PPP had announced it would take part in the Senate elections, Fazl made it clear that the opposition parties were not against the elections of any institution but added that the matter would be decided in later PDM meetings as “we have the luxury of time”.

The PDM president further said that no decision was taken in the PDM summit meeting regarding the PPP’s suggestion for bringing no confidence motions in the National Assembly and the Punjab Assembly.

“We have given a month, till 31 January, to the government to resign. Upon expiry of the deadline we will decide about the date of the long march and the date of resignations [of the lawmakers belonging to the opposition parties],” he said.

“It will also be decided whether to march towards Islamabad or towards Rawalpindi,” he said. “All parties agreed that the establishment has held the system of the country hostage by making the country a deep state.”

He said that the PDM held army leadership and establishment responsible for installing a puppet upon the country by rigging and stealing people’s mandate. “It has been decided to direct criticism towards them and make it clear to the people, who actually are responsible for the country’s woes and why,” he added.

“It is their choice, whether to keep the country in their clutches or return to their constitutional duty,” he said. He added that the opposition respected the army and its generals and “realised that army is our defence force but when the defence forces abandoned their constitutional duties and interfere in politics, it creates complications”.

According to Fazl, there were “legal, political, financial and constitutional crises in the country today, all because they transgress their boundaries”. He added that they had given a lot of space to the establishment.

Fazl announced that the PDM had decided to hold protests outside the ECP in Islamabad on January 19. He added that they also planned to hold similar protests outside the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) because the graft buster had become a tool in political victimisation. He said that the opposition was not against the accountability but added that they would not stand “this victimisation in the name of accountability”.

At the news conference, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz avoided a direct answer when asked about her party’s National Assembly members, who took back their resignations despite her instruction to stand by them.

She said she had all the resignations of her party’s parliamentarians and that no lawmaker from her party could even think of withdrawing from the resignations, when the party leadership would ask them to do so.

Later, Maryam told reporters that the PDM had decided to take part in the by-election before resigning from assemblies because “they will not leave any front open for the PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf]”. She hinted that they could even consider fielding joint candidates in the by-elections.

She said that PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif has clearly stated that “we want to take all parties along with us”. She added that Sharif had also said that if all parties contested elections, the PML-N would contest and “if all parties stayed away, the PML-N would not contest”.

She claimed that no party in the PDM had decided about the Senate elections, including the PPP. “There is still time, the decision can be taken later,” she said. In this regard, she added that discussion was still under way.

Maryam said that it was for the people to send Prime Minister Imran Khan home. About the long march, she stressed the need for keeping weather conditions in view, saying that the workers could not be pushed into any difficult environment.

PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira, when asked about his party’s position on the plans for marching towards Islamabad or Rawalpindi, said that these were only proposals and that no decision had been taken. “When the time will come, we will discuss the matter,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the PML-N was, in fact, favoured leaving parliament and not to contest by-elections. Senior PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah had claimed on Thursday that an overwhelming majority in the party thought that they should not become part of electoral process.

Reportedly JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also wanted the PDM parties to leave parliament and give a date for a long march, however, it seems that both the JUI-F and the PMLN compromised on their positions to keep the PPP on board.