PPP asks JUI-F chief not to cause further fissures in the opposition

Islamabad: Pakistan People’s Party has expressed grave disappointment over the statement of JUI chief Moulana Fazal ur Rehman accusing the PPP that by not resigning from the Assemblies it had played into the hands of the establishment.

“It does not befit the stature of Moulana to resort to blatant falsehood in responding to criticism of his politics and policies”, said Farhatullah Babar Secretary general of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians in a statement.

Moulana’s accusations are absolutely untrue and aimed at covering up the role played by him which will achieve no purpose except to further divide the opposition in its efforts to dislodge the selected regime.

For the record let it be reiterated that contrary to the assertion of JUI chief it was never the consensus decision of the erstwhile PDM to resign from the Assemblies. This position of the PPP was explained in unambiguous terms at the meeting of the heads of component parties in Mr. Nawaz Sharif’s Raiwind estate on January 1, 2021. The hybrid meeting was attended besides Moulana Sahib by heads of all component parties of PDM including Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Mian Nawaz Sharif, Sardar Akhtar Mengal, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Mariam Nawaz Sharif and others, he said.

At that meeting the PPP laid bare the constitutional, legal and political implications of the resignation option and the likely political consequences flowing from it as a result of the selected and selectors joining hands and playing havoc with the constitutional edifice reconstructed under the 18th Amendment, he said.

He said that in the meeting the PPP proposed to adopt the Parliamentary route to bring under pressure both the selected and selectors. Even the methodology for it was explained in some detail when Moulana himself asked about it. The conversation on proposed methodology however was not pursued further as it was evident that Moulana Sahib was reluctant to take on the non-political support base of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Farhatullah Babar said that the PDM broke the day when even before the sarbarahi ijlas on March 8 in Islamabad to discuss the long march, it announced linking the long march with resignations from the Assemblies behind the back of PPP.

The PPP position on using the platform of parliament was vindicated when Mr.Yousuf Raza Gillani was elected to the senate serving the selected Prime Minister with a vote of no confidence by the National Assembly. The overwhelming victory in the bye elections to various Assembly seats and the fiasco in Daska bye election had also endorsed the soundness of PPP strategy, he said.

He said that the PPP had participated in the long march of JUI in October 2019. The Islamabad sit-in was however abruptly called off by Moulana after Ch Pervez Ilahi first disclosed that an understanding had been reached for ending the sit-in. Although it raised serious questions as to what games Moulana was playing, the PPP refrained from accusing him of playing in the hands of the establishment.

He said that Moulana Sahib would be well advised not to cause further splits in the opposition ranks and save thereby selected and his non political backers and support base.