Opposition gears up to give govt tough time in NA

Political rivals draw inflation, economic crisis as a battle line against ruling party

ISLAMABAD:

In a rare political unity, all the opposition parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party, have decided to hold a joint protest against the government.

“We will give the government a tough time in parliament,” Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, said while chairing a meeting in his chamber on Monday.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and other leaders including Opposition Leader in the Senate Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman and former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf were in attendance.

The participants of the meeting deliberated on chalking out a joint strategy in parliament to grill the government over its economic policies.

Bilawal expressed the resolve to oust the “incompetent” government by mounting pressure on it. The PPP leader lashed out at what he dubbed the “PTI-IMF nexus”, saying the government’s submission to the global lender had come at the cost of the livelihood of people.

“This is an important point on which the entire opposition has converged,” he remarked.

PML-N leader Shehbaz, concurring with the PPP chairman, affirmed that the opposition was united against the government on these issues. He alleged that one-sided accountability process was being used as a tool against the opposition parties.

“To defend the people and their problems, whether it is inflation or an attempt to steal votes through EVMs (electronic voting machines), we are united in parliament against the government,” Bilawal said.

“We will expose the failed policies of the government and go to greater lengths to thwart any conspiracy of rigging and political revenge,” Bilawal said, referring to the government’s proposed wide-ranging electoral reforms.

The joint opposition will meet again on Tuesday (today) to mull over devising further strategies to tackle the ruling party in the parliament.