LAHORE – The Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leadership decided on Sunday to boycott the upcoming joint parliamentary session to be addressed by President Asif Zardari on March 22, indicating new strains in its relations with the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Sources told Pakistan Today that the PML-Q legislators were likely to stage a walkout from the joint session to protest against the government’s handling of drone attacks and the Raymond Davis incident. A decision to this effect was taken in an emergency meeting of PML-Q leaders in Lahore chaired by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
A participant of the meeting said that his party would not be present in the joint session and would go for an early walkout. Party leaders said that PML-Q would also give vent to its anger against recent measures taken by the government in its mini-budget. Shujaat had JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman and MQM chief Altaf Hussain to formulate a joint strategy for the session.
It will be interesting to see what strategy is being adopted by the PML-N which is also keen to establish its new identity as the main opposition party in the country. Prime Minister Gilani, however, has called a meeting of parliamentary leaders in a bid to find common ground as far as the presidential address is concerned.
