PPP takes full advantage of PTI’s absence from joint sitting

Islamabad

Whatever the three-day joint session of Parliament that concluded here on Friday achieved except for adopting a unanimous resolution condemning Indian forces atrocities on peaceful Kashmiri people, the PPP took full advantage of the absence of PTI from the proceedings as it tried to repair its soft plunging image by hitting out at the treasury as well as reiterating its steadfast allegiance to the Kashmir cause.

The party which is grappling with its fast declining image as the once largest party of the federation has thus made a deliberate effort to recoup whatever loss has been done to its popularity.

What was the PPPs’ gain was loss for the PTI which apparently failed to read overall sentiments of the people with regard to the mounting tension between India and Pakistan over the developments in Indian held Kashmir.

The PTI which surprised not only the government and its allies but also stunned the opposition parties by its opting not to participate in the most crucial debate on Kashmir to show the world the nation was one and united against any adventure by the Indian forces in face of border tensions. 

Saner elements within the PTI which opposed party chairman’s decision have also been joined by the silent supporters of the party as well as a section of media persons sympathetic to the party so far.

The PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto was well advised first time to come out of oblivion to lead the party’s parliamentary group at the parliament house and also witnessed and listened to the part of first day’s proceedings.

It seems the PPP leadership has decided once and for all to use all resources to revive its lost glory and to establish itself first in the federal capital and then in the Punjab and then all over the country.

PPP Leader of Opposition in the Senate Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan’s clash with a fellow PM-N senator Mushahidullah Khan aside, the party speakers on last day of the joint session of Parliament, when a resolution was passed on Kashmir, kept themselves aloof from the ground realities and its own performance was criticized.

PPP Senator Sherry Rehman criticized the government for repeating the same words which were already used in the communiqué released at the end of APC two days back and called for inclusion of Kulbhushan Yadav and Balochistan in the same which though was not obliged.

Similarly, party’s former interior minister Rehman Malik was very eloquent and to the point as the speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq also acknowledged what he called new and compact information no other member had enlightened the house so far. Malik took credit for writing five letters to the PM and UN secretary general suggesting measures to bring peace to the troubled Kashmir.

Rehman echoed Aitzaz's address to the joint session a day earlier during which the premier failed to mention the Indian spy caught by military officials months earlier.

Aitzaz Ahsan also had something to say about Yadav during today's session: "The day Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says the name of Kulbhushan Yadav, I will donate Rs50,000 to the blind association.

Rehman Malik said Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval’s threat must be taken seriously as he had said that the day another attack was made on the Indian soil Pakistan will lose Balochistan.

"Who is defending Pakistan? Our parliament is doing it. Our Army is fighting the largest inland war against terrorism in the world today and nobody knows about it," Sheharbano famous as Sherry Rehman said. 

"This is a failure of your diplomacy," she added earning the party colleague’s applause.

"The military's job was be standing there in the trenches but unfortunately they were made to do our job," she warned the government, "Because that's what they are being forced to do."

"They have to give speeches, they have to take positions, and they have to take journalists to the Line of Control for briefings. What have you done?" she asked the government.