LAHORE: The reluctance of PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif to attend
the proposed post-Eid multi-party conference (MPC) has not been received well
by the host, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), whose leaders say it always
tricks its allies and is a hurdle in the alliance of the opposition.
Led
by former Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, these leaders have urged Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari
to take caution while dealing with the N-League and do politics independently
instead of entering into alliance in Punjab, it has been learnt…
A
PML-N delegation consisting of Ahsan Iqbal, Ayaz Sadiq and Khwajaa Saad Rafique
had called on Mr Bhutto a day ago to discuss political cooaperation and the MPC
the PPP was delaying for the last couple of weeks for want of Mr Sharif’s
availability.
They
told the host that for health reasons the party president would be unable to
attend theMPC Planed for holding immediately after Eidul Azhaa. Mr Sharif
was in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19. He recovered and tested
negative for the virus earlier in the month.
The ‘excuse’ prompted Mr Bhutto to comment that the event would be
of no use in the absence of the PML-N president, who is also opposition leader
in the National Assembly.
The
PPP chairman convened a meeting of senior party leadership belonging to Punjab
here on Tuesday to discuss the situation.
Aitzaz
Ahsan and other ‘hawks’ expressed their reservations about the PML-N role [in
the past and the present] saying it is ‘habitual of using others’ for its
interests, one of the participants tells Dawn.
The
source quoted Aitzaz Ahsan as recalling that the N-League had ‘deceived’
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto despite her sincerity, and never let any chance go for
defaming the PPP leadership.
Mr
Ahsan was further quoted as suggesting that the party should do [independently]
ideological politics in Punjab rather than forging alliances.
Punjab
Assembly members of the PPP were also not happy with the ‘treatment’ they were
being meted out by the PML-N, saying the latter [usually] won’t take them into
confidence while making any decision in the provincial house.
Mr
Bhutto was, however, cited as urging the participants to take a pragmatic view
of the situation and they should try to take along all opposition stakeholders
in the drive against the ‘selected’ government.
Those
who were in attendance included Qamar Zaman Kaira, Aslam Gill, Chaudhry
Manzoor, Barrister Amir Hassan, Altaf Hussain Qureshi, Azizur Rehman Chan,
Samina Gharki, Zohaib Butt, Hassan Murtaza, Asim Mahmood Bhatti, Musa Khokhar,
Inayat Shah, Imran Athwal, Allama Yusuf Awan, Dr Khayyam Hafeez, Dr Khalid
Javed Jan, Israrul Haq Butt, Shazia Abid and others.
The
party chairman said with the joint efforts of the opposition parties, this
‘incompetent’, ‘fascist’ and ‘corrupt’ government could be stopped from taking
anti-masses steps.
These
‘incompetent’ rulers want to seize the autonomy and resources of the provinces
as the 18th Amendment and the NFC Award are being made controversial, he said,
and exhorted the PPP leaders to play a pro-active role in Punjab.
He
tasked them to go door to door and inform the people about the ‘incompetence’
of the PTI government.
No
PML-N leader, including central spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, was available
for comments.
Meanwhile,
the PPP chairman has expressed grave concern over the news of ‘kidnapping’ of
senior journalist Matiullah Jan in Islamabad. He demanded that the ‘selected’
government must ensure immediate safe return of Matiullah Jan. “The kidnapping
of Matiullah Jan is an attack not only on media freedom and democracy but on
all of us.”
