PDM to hammer out thorny issues on Jan 2

ISLAMABAD: An important meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will be held in Lahore on January 2 in which the mainstream opposition leadership would ponder over contentious issues related to its ongoing anti-government campaign, sources told The News on Friday.

“The upcoming PDM meeting will focus on four basic issues including by-elections, Senate elections, resignations from the assemblies and a long march on Islamabad,” sources said. The meeting will be attended by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and leaders of other religious and regional parties. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari would attend the meeting through video link.

Sources say there are different viewpoints among the mainstream opposition parties on important political issues due to which the PDM is yet to come up with a clear-cut strategy in the current political situation. “The PPP will definitely press the opposition parties to participate in both by-elections and Senate elections. On the other hand, the JUI-F is not in favour of the suggestion to participate in by-elections at a time when the opposition parties are receiving resignations from their lawmakers,” sources said.

They said the JUI-F was also of the view that if the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) succeeded in getting majority seats and electing its own Senate Chairman, it would continue to influence national politics even if its government in the Centre remained intact or was toppled by the opposition alliance. A senior PML-N leader, who requested anonymity, told this correspondent that the party leadership was now convinced that tendering resignations from the assemblies would not break the electoral college for Senate elections and the ruling party would be able to grab more seats in the absence of the opposition members. He said the party was not in favor of any no-confidence motion in Balochistan, Punjab or the Centre because it believed that the solution to all problems was only holding fresh free and fair elections.

A source in the PPP said former President Asif Ali Zardari was likely to present his viewpoint to the PDM meeting that people should not get an impression that the PDM movement was just to stop Senate elections because it was struggling for a bigger cause and its aim was to get rid of the Imran-led government that had made lives of people miserable.

Sources said both PML-N and PPP were not in favor of a long march in early February because their senior members maintained that they should move towards Islamabad in a favorable political environment and weather conditions. They said the PPP was completely against staging a sit-in in Islamabad and its chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari would also present his viewpoint to the upcoming PDM meeting. Sources said the PDM leadership would face a gigantic task to come up with a consensus on political issues on which mainstream opposition parties held different positions.