LAHORE – Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Friday that the real test of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML N) leadership lay ahead as to how it handled a strong and vocal opposition in Punjab.
“It will be interesting to see how the PML-N’s 20-20 side matches against the experienced test side of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP),” said the minister, using cricket analogy in a lighter tone during her visit to the offices of Pakistan Today, where she met Editor Arif Nizami and exchanged views on the prevailing political situation.
To a question about PPP’s protest in the Punjab Assembly against the Unification Bloc of the PML-Q, the minister said that the PML-N leadership had seen an ideal environment in the last three years in the absence of a strong opposition. “We have seen, many times, Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar speaking on the floor of the House for hours, being highly critical of the government. Now we will see how Shahbaz Sharif takes all this in the coming days.”
The minister said that the PPP as an opposition would play its role in Punjab in accordance with the constitution. “The PPP would never like to do something that might hurt the prevailing democratic setup. It will be constructive criticism,” she said.
