Despite having two days to convince coalition partners the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on a resolution against the Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict barring President Asif Ali Zardari’s political activities in his capacity as the head of state, the PPP was forced to go solo yet again in the Sindh Assembly session on Monday. Members from the MQM and PML-Q, as well as the friendly opposition of PML-Functional, began leaving the House before the PPP could bring up the resolution. The PPP had earlier planned to table the resolution last Friday, but was forced to defer it due to the sudden absence of members from their coalition partners and opposition.
President Asif Ali Zardari was unanimously elected as president from the Sindh Assembly after securing 100 percent votes. The MQM, PML-F, and PML-Q members had also supported three previous resolutions the House had passed in favour of President Zardari, but this was first time that these parties kept their lawmakers at a distance. Regardless, the Sindh Assembly – mostly comprising of PPP members – passed the resolution terming the LHC verdict tantamount to depriving the people of their fundamental right to elect the country’s president and being a reflection of a mindset that wanted to depoliticise the society.
The resolution was initially moved by Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, PPP MPA Nadeem Ahmed Bhutto and some others, but later, all PPP lawmakers present in the House became movers of the resolution. The Awami National Party’s (ANP) Ameer Nawab and National People’s Party’s (NPP) Abid Jatoi also supported the resolution. The resolution reads: “This Assembly resolves that the constitution of Pakistan enshrines every individual’s right to elect his leader, that this right allows democracy to be established, and that exercising this right, the people of Pakistan elected President Asif Ali Zardari as the sovereign head of the nation.
[This Assembly] opines that the recent judgment by the Lahore High Court dated May 12, 2011, advising the president to relinquish the office of co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party amounts to depriving the people of Pakistan of this fundamental right, and is evidence of the mindset aiming to depoliticise the Pakistani society, the same mindset that earlier facilitated the induction of dictators into the presidential office on the pretext of the law of necessity.”
“[This Assembly] believes that politics is a noble calling, and holding meetings in the Presidency with leaders of political parties and workers of his own party to glean collective wisdom and further the process of political reconciliation does not compromise its sanctity or dignity, and firmly reiterates that the essence of an egalitarian democracy is served by the current political set up which upholds the constitution of Pakistan and is a true representation of the people of this country.”