ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday urged Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah to help pass laws related to making constituencies in the Senate, as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Nawaz Sharif said he was disappointed by the Pakistan People’s Party for moving a bill seeking repeal of an article that allows disqualified persons to hold the top office of a political party.
During his meeting with Shah, PM Abbasi had requested for a meeting with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leadership to help gain a majority in the Upper House of Parliament for passing laws related to delimitation.
“The premier wants to meet PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari,” Shah said, adding that he can only convey the message to the party leadership.
“The matter is beyond my authority, contact the party leadership,” Khursheed Shah advised PM Abbasi.
PM Abbasi wants to either meet Zardari and Bilawal, or speak to them via telephone, sources said.
Earlier in August, terming the results of the sixth population and housing census as manipulation, fraud and an attack on the province, the political and nationalist parties in Sindh said that Sindh’s population has deliberately been shown less to gain political mileage.
“How is it possible that the population of Lahore and Peshawar has increased by 116 per cent and 100 per cent respectively while Karachi’s population has increased in the last 19 years by 60 per cent, from 9.34 million to 14.91 million – a net addition of 5.56 million people only,” said Lal Bux Bhutto, a senior leader of the PPP and the party’s federal council member.
According to the recently-passed bill in the National Assembly, the NA seats will remain the same, Punjab will lose out on seats as its proportion in Pakistan’s population has fallen to 52pc in 2017 from 56pc in 1998.
The provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will gain the seats lost by Punjab, while Sindh’s share will remain the same.
However, the passing of delimitation bill in Senate was delayed in last few sessions due to one reason or another.
NAWAZ SLAMS PPP:
Meanwhile, ousted premier Nawaz Sharif came down hard on PPP for moving a bill in the National Assembly seeking to restrict disqualified parliamentarians from heading a political party.
The bill was rejected after 163 members voted against the proposed change in the legislation.
Speaking to a private news channel during a visit to a local hospital to meet PML-N MNA Rajab Baloch , Nawaz said, the “dictator’s black laws were rejected on the floor of the house yesterday”.
The PML-N president lamented the PPP moving of the amendment bill, saying, “The PPP’s support for this bill hurt me. The party’s action has made me question their democratic credentials.”
He added that the party’s past struggles and sacrifices for democracy do not sit well with their present action [of supporting an anti-democratic law].