PML-N also jumps on Senate polls bandwagon

Unilaterally decides to participate in upper house election by by-passing PDM

ISLAMABAD:

Following in the PPP’s footsteps, the PML-N has also decided to take part in the upcoming Senate polls – a move that stands in sharp contrast to their earlier stance that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will decide whether or not the opposition parties would participate in the election.

The biggest opposition party decided this on Monday during its parliamentary party meeting chaired by the PML-N Vice Chairman Maryam Nawaz.

The statement issued after the meeting did not say anything about the decision. Despite repeated calls and text messages, PML-N Secretary Information Maryam Aurangzeb also did not respond.

However, PML-N leader Mushahid Hussain Syed confirmed the development. “The PML-N parliamentary party has agreed to participate in the Senate elections,” Syed told The Express Tribune. 

“Once the PPP’s CEC [Central Executive Committee] took a decision independently [without involving the PDM] on the issue of resignations and participation in the Senate polls, other parties too exercised the same choice,” he added.

According to Syed, there was no discussion at the meeting about tendering resignations from legislatures as the PDM parties had earlier announced. However, the meeting did thank the lawmakers who submitted their resignations to the leadership.

“PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz insisted that the opposition parties, under the banner of the PDM, will use the option to resign from parliament at the right time," he said.

Syed insisted that it was not a deviation from their earlier stance as the PDM decides on issues through consensus after consultation, “but, if there’s no consensus, then those issues are decided by component parties on their own”.

“The decisions taken by movements like the PDM are reviewed based on whether the options are feasible as well as results of the decision. The PDM has offered great political advantage to the PML-N as it has given the PML-N a wider national platform to propagate its perspective,” the senator said.

Some analysts believe that differences in the 11-party opposition alliance are widening with the major parties taking unilateral decisions rather than following the roadmap they have been announcing earlier to oust the PTI led federal government.

The PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday rejected such speculations despite the fact that PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday openly disagreed with the proposal of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to move a no-confidence motion against the incumbent government.

PML-N Parliamentary Party moot

The statement released after the meeting stated that a resolution was passed in the joint meeting of the parliamentary party, strongly protesting the latest wave of inflation in the country. Pakistan, it said, is fast becoming a failed state at home and abroad due the imposed government.

It said the country’s valuable assets were being snatched; PIA planes were being confiscated; assets such as Roosevelt Hotel were being taken over by foreigners; passengers were being treated like prisoners; and the effects of frustration and humiliation within the nation were intensifying.

The PML-N said people are desperate to know why this is happening with an Islamic, democratic and nuclear Pakistan. “Responsibility for this national embarrassment lies on the incompetent, corrupt and foreign-imposed government,” the statement read.

The PML-N expressed concern over the country's growing debt of Rs14,000 billion and declared the recent decision to borrow more money a recipe for national suicide.

“National assets such as motorways, airports and F-9 Park are being mortgaged to get more loans,” it said. “The most important question was how this debt will be repaid.”

The PML-N demanded that the process of mortgaging national assets in a foolish and ignorant manner be stopped immediately. The meeting also expressed grave concern over reports of non-recognition of Pakistan's “sovereign guarantee”, calling it a sign of economic bankruptcy.

Expressing grave concern over the gas shortage in the country, the PML-N said the situation is further worsened by “criminal delays” in the LNG import and reckless actions of the government in gas sector.

It said the agricultural sector is currently in severe crisis. It claimed that the crisis of wheat and flour in the wheat season and the crisis of sugar in the crushing season of sugar are a telling proof of the most serious failures and corruption in the agricultural sector.

 The meeting pointed out that the appointments of retired and in-service military officers in the institutions within Pakistan are practically painting a picture of martial law in the country due to which the civil bureaucracy and the people at large are very uneasy and anxious.

 “This situation is also seriously making the reputation of the military questionable and will further widen the gap between the civilians and the military,” it added.  The meeting announced its full support for PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif’s narrative and his “principled stance”.