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Friday March 29, 2024

JUI, MQM ought to withdraw resolutions

ISLAMABAD: Quick amicable disposal of a resolution seeking ouster of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers from the National Assembly is being unnecessarily dragged with its two co-sponsors aiming to further rub the nose of this party in the dust.Sick and tired of lingering solution of the issue, meaning rejection of

By Tariq Butt
August 05, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Quick amicable disposal of a resolution seeking ouster of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers from the National Assembly is being unnecessarily dragged with its two co-sponsors aiming to further rub the nose of this party in the dust.
Sick and tired of lingering solution of the issue, meaning rejection of the motion, the PTI has decided to stay away from the National Assembly sessions till a decision is reached on it. Its patience to endure further taunts and boos on the floor has apparently run out.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamiat Ulemae Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) are well aware in view of the numerical scenario against the resolution that it could not be carried through if put to voting, but they are still insistent on their stand. Their only objective is to further embarrass the PTI.
At the end of the day, the move will prove to be inconsequential and the PTI lawmakers will continue to hold their positions as the motion will be definitely defeated if the stage of voting is not averted as a result of the ongoing negotiations to prevail upon the MQM and JUI-F to change their mind.
From day one, the unambiguous message from the ruling PML-N on the resolution is copiously clear that it would not let the PTI abandon the assemblies because their presence is in the best interest of the democratic system. It reinforced its stand after the report of the inquiry commission, which upheld the legitimacy of the 2013 general elections and rejected the PTI rigging allegations. It harps the mantra that it wants to compete with the PTI in the political field rather than dumping it on technical grounds.
Not only the PML-N but all its coalition partners and the main opposition party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), are strongly opposed to banish PTI from the assemblies. They have projected their stance loud and clear to all and sundry.
“All parties except the JUI-F and MQM want us to remain in Parliament. We understand the reservations of the two,” senior PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said, correctly reading the game-plan of the majority and the numbers’ game in the National Assembly.
After the findings of the inquiry commission were announced, the PTI decided to go back to the assemblies, giving up its earlier opinion that the legislatures are the result of the rigged elections. When the MQM and JUI-F are trying to continuously humiliate the PTI through their campaign on the resolution, Imran Khan’s team has left no doubt anywhere that it wants to be part of the parliamentary process to play its due role.
At least twice, a person no less than Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has intervened to urge the MQM and JUI-F not to insist on their resolution, but they have so far stood ground. They are unwilling to forget the hurt caused to them by the PTI during the 2014 sit-in and later.
Of the two parties, the MQM is more aggressive due to the PTI’s campaign against Altaf Hussain in London over the past one week and before. While pursuing their political agenda, they are unmindful of the fact that if the PTI legislators were unseated, political instability will hit Pakistan once again, causing problems for the country. A number of by-elections will have to be held to fill these seats.
After a long time, Pakistan relishes a rare political stability, which has chiefly been created by the report of the inquiry commission that nailed the entire PTI campaign. The government is determined to maintain this situation and to let the PTI play its parliamentary role although it too is extremely miffed, even more than the MQM and JUI-F, because of the harangue it was subjected to during the sit-in.
The day the findings of the commission were made public, the prime minister spoke his mind and announced to leave behind the confrontation, bitterness and instability created by the sit-in and move forward.