PHOTO: PID
ISLAMABAD/ KARACHI:
The heads of most parliamentary parties of the country advised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday to intervene for scrapping two motions seeking unseating of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s lawmakers. They asked the prime minister to adopt a policy of political reconciliation to move forward.
A day earlier, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had deferred for one week voting on the two motions against 28 PTI MNAs for absenting from the lower house of parliament for more than 40 days. The motions were moved by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazlur Rehman).
Premier Nawaz met the heads of 10 parliamentary parties at the Parliament House to deliberate on how to deal with the two motions as well as to devise a parliamentary strategy to deal with the PTI in light of the recent report of the judicial inquiry commission that probed into alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.
Only two of the 10 parties – the MQM and the JUI-F – were adamant on their position. Sources said everyone in the meeting tried to persuade both the parties to reconsider, but to no avail. However, Nawaz later constituted a four-member committee and tasked it with persuading the MQM and the JUI-F to withdraw their motions.
The body – comprising Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, Railways Minister Saad Rafique and Special Assistant to PM on National Affairs Irfan Siddiqui – met JUI-F chief Fazlur Rahman, who told them that he would get back to them after consulting his party members. Moreover, the MQM has also sought time from the committee to respond.
Sources within the federal government have expressed hope that the issue would be resolved amicably in the coming days.
PML-Q General Secretary Mushahid Hussain Sayed later told The Express Tribune that he had advised Premier Nawaz to deal with the PTI issue with an open heart and with patience because the presence of Imran’s party in the NA is in the larger national interest. “The unseating issue should be addressed politically, and the PTI should remain in the democratic setup.”
He warned that any short-sightedness or politically wrong decision might lead to destabilisation of the country.
Meanwhile, the MQM refused to withdraw its motion for the time being. The party demands that the PTI lawmakers be expelled from parliament. MQM spokesman Wasay Jalil told The Express Tribune that the party was still unyielding on its stance of unseating the PTI MPs. “Our stance is the same and we continue to support it.”
Altaf Hussain, the chief of the MQM, has also requested Premier Nawaz to expel the PTI parliamentarians because they had already resigned from the house and called for accepting them.
Altaf also said that Imran had called the assembly ‘fake’ during his Islamabad sit-in last year and refused to accept it because, according to the PTI chief, it was the result of a rigged election.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 30th, 2015.
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