ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday termed Awami National Party’s (ANP) decision to quit Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) as tactful move of ‘caving in and selling out’.
The ANP formally announced that it was withdrawing from PDM as the opposition parties’ alliance had been hijacked by some of its members for their own interests.
The Peshawar-based political party took the decision after its leaders were issued show-cause notices to explain their actions during the recently-held Senate elections by PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Reacting to ANP’s hard-hitting presser, JUI-F’s secretary-general Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said “there were several ways to caving in and selling out”.
Terming ANP’s decision to quit the alliance as the most humiliating move in political history of the country, Haideri said that ANP and PPP’s actions have made us a laughing stock before the people.
He warned ANP that it had made a blunder after blaming PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman for lacking leadership. He said that the ANP leadership should not have blamed JUI-F chief.
At the same time, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that ANP had made several sacrifices for the cause of democracy, as she expressed sorrow over their departure.
However, she said that PPP’s decision to get their member elected as the opposition leader in Senate was against PDM’s September 20 Charter – as they got support from treasury benches and ANP backed them.
She said that PDM had decided the opposition leader in Senate would be from PML-N, adding this was reason the party supported Yousaf Raza Gillani in Senate elections.
She said that Nawarz Sharif would not have said no to Gillani if had requested him for nominating him as opposition leader in Senate after losing the election for the chairman of the upper house of parliament.
“Backtracking from its commitment that the opposition leader would be from PML-N as it’d already been agreed through the platform of PDM, is something which is not good for any political party,” she regretted.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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