- NA Opp leader says PPP will also ask MQM to let PTI protest peacefully
- Calls on Altaf Hussain to contest Senate elections in March 2015
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah on Thursday said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will not create any hurdles for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as it stages its protest in Karachi today (Friday).
While talking to reporters in his chamber in National Assembly, the PPP leader said that PTI needs a ‘safe passage’ since their party’s chairman Imran Khan has realised his sit-in could continue for three years. He added that this realisation could be gauged from PTI’s statements.
Although the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government and the PTI have decided to resume talks without any pre-conditions, the latter has yet to discontinue its ‘Plan-C’ – protests in different cities.
Shah said that the PPP government in Sindh and its workers in Karachi will not stand in the way of PTI. “We will ask the MQM (largest political party by seats in Karachi) to do the same,” he remarked.
However, Shah lamented that it would have been better had PTI called off their protest after talks with the government resumed on Thursday.
“Imran Khan can hold protest anywhere in Karachi but it would’ve been better if he had addressed the issues of a common man rather than asking them to make him the prime minister,” he said.
The opposition leader, though, endorsed PTI’s demand for immediately forming a judicial commission to investigate alleged rigging in the May 2013 elections. If there are any legal complications in instituting such a commission, these can be removed by amending the relevant laws, Shah added.
“Whoever does not accept the findings of commission, would be held responsible for creating chaos in the country,” he remarked.
In a bid to cut the tension between the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and PPP, Shah suggested that MQM chief Altaf Hussain should contest for a seat in the Senate in March 2015.
Shah was of the view that the MQM chief should not be worried about his security.
“We would request Altaf’s party to nominate him for the Senate,” he said. “Allah and the Constitution will protect Altaf once he comes to Pakistan.”