Parties scramble for support over change of Opp leader

Nawaz, Zardari jump in to save Khursheed Shah

PTI changes plan, names Imran its candidate

ISLAMABAD: The agreement between the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) for a joint move to remove the National Assembly’s opposition leader has triggered widespread response from the political parties.

Following the move, the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have sprung into action to save the incumbent Opposition Leader Syed Khursheed Shah.

The aforementioned four parties have started to contact likeminded political parties and smaller groups to help achieve their objectives in the fast changing scenario.

Initially, it was the PTI and the MQM who held an important meeting in Karachi to finalise the modalities in this regard.  However, this move triggered a strong reaction from PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto who branded this move a threat to the stability of parliament.

“This is an attack on the parliament and the strength it has to steer the country in the right direction. [These] ‘remote-controlled’ efforts to remove Khursheed Shah would fail,” he said.

FISSURES WITHIN PTI: The PTI, however, faces fissures within its ranks over its candidate for the slot of the opposition leader. The differences came to the fore following a statement soon after the meeting, held between the MQM and the PTI, which suggested PTI deputy parliamentary leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s name was being acceptable to all the opposition parties for the post.

However, a group in the party closed to Jahangir Khan Tareen, opposed the idea and vowed not to accept Qureshi as the opposition leader. Not only Qureshi’s nomination angered many PTI lawmakers, MNA Ali Mohammad Khan took to the Twitter to express his opposition to Qureshi’s nomination.

This apparent rift angered Imran Khan who immediately convened a meeting of the top party leaders on Wednesday morning to take them into confidence. A source in the PTI told Pakistan Today that Imran Khan told the party leaders that there was no confusion among the top leaders and the party delegation which met the MQM-P leaders had sought his approval for putting forward the name of Shah Mahmood Qureshi as a possible replacement to Khursheed Shah.

The source said that the PTI did not want to offend other parties to share their original candidate and the nomination of Imran Khan could be made at some later stage. He said, “We at this initial stage wanted to create an enabling environment with other parties against whom Imran Khan had been using harsh language in the past. Thus, we wanted to bring them into the fold first and at a later stage we could have shared our [original] plan.”

“Imran Khan told the meeting that Tareen was also a part of the plan,” the source added. The source said that the party lawmakers insisted during the meeting that the party should come up with a clear stance that Imran Khan was the ultimate choice for the opposition leader slot and the same should be conveyed to all. Subsequently, “the party decided that Imran Khan would be its only nominee for the opposition leader slot. Hence all differences are over now,” the source added.

Following the difference emerged within the PTI ranks over Shah Mahmood Qureshi as opposition leader, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) also expressed reservations for being ignored in the process. In a statement, PML-Q chief Chaudhary Shujaat said that his party was not taken in confidence before the nomination of Shah Mehmood’s name for the post of the new opposition leader. “We were contacted by the PTI after the name of Shah Mehmood was finalised which is unfair,” said Ch Shujaat.

PPP, PML-N CONTACT JUI-F: Sources in the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have claimed that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has contacted Fazlur Rehman and urged him to play his role to save Khursheed Shah from being removed as the opposition leader.

The sources said that Fazl has been advised by Nawaz Sharif to move an application with the chambers of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, asking him to allocate the JUI-F lawmakers’ seats to the opposition benches.

The JUI-F, which has 13 lawmakers in the National Assembly, can play a key role if they decide to sit on the opposition benches. An interesting situation has developed as Nawaz Sharif also summoned Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to Lahore and had held an important meeting with him.

INSET: THE NUMBERS GAME

The opposition in National Assembly has around 110 members out of which the PPP is the largest party with 47 lawmakers. The PTI comes second with the support of 32 lawmakers. However, since its three members are not supporting the party anymore, its number should be considered 29.

As Shaikh Rashid, Jamshed Dasti and Zain Elahi – three independent lawmakers – also support the PTI, therefore the number reaches 32 again.

The MQM-P is the third largest party in opposition with 24 members. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has four members while Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) have two members each, while Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) has one lawmaker.

If the JUI-F decides to move to the opposition benches, a very interesting situation may emerge and it could put pressure on the PTI which is in a position to win at least 64 votes for the slot of the opposition leader.

The source in the PTI says that since the party has finalised its candidate for the top slot, it plans to contact the smaller groups and candidates, including JI, PML-Q, Awami Muslim League, Jamshaid Dasti, Zain Elahi, Aftab Sherpao and others, to win their support.

On the other hand, the PPP has already 47 members. If it can convince JUI-F to join the opposition benches, the situation may bring hopes for Shah as this group would also take its tally of votes to 60. In case the ANP decides to support Shah, both the groups would have support of 62 votes each. At this stage, any group can pull a surprise.