PPP’s CEC meeting put off due to Senate session: Bilawal

Ag Agencies

KHAIRPUR: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said some party members feel that just as Yousuf Raza Gilani’s victory as the Senate opposition leader was unpalatable for Prime Minister Imran Khan, “some of our friends in the PML-N have been unable to digest it as well” as the party postponed its high-level Central Executive Committee meeting over parliamentary sessions.

“Our friends in the opposition are opposing the opposition,” Bilawal said in a press conference here, according to Geo News. Bilawal also confirmed what fellow party member Nayyer Bukhari announced regarding the postponement of the PPP’s Central Executive Committee, which was put off due to a Senate session called by the President.

The much-anticipated CEC meeting was to be held to deliberate on the issue of en masse resignations of lawmakers from assemblies, a demand that the PPP has been reluctant to agree to despite the PML-N and JUI-F’s insistence.

“My suggestion to the PML-N even today is play politics with forbearance and a cool mind. My way or the highway politics cannot be work all the time,” the PPP chairman said to the PML-N, whose leadership has been furious with the manner in which the PPP managed to manoeuvre Gilani into the Senate slot with the help of “government aligned lawmakers”.

He also called on the Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) president to “not support any one party”. Bilawal hit back at the “propaganda of some parties” to portray PPP as having made deals, but said the government would ultimately benefit from the confrontation of the opposition, “so I am refraining from responding, and you know I can answer”.

He also announced that his party would remain in contact with PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif and Hamza Shahbaz for parliamentary politics.

The PPP chairman said he worked hard and went to every province to lay the foundation of the PDM. And even now he wanted opposition parties to work together. “I still believe the opposition should take on the government instead of fighting among themselves,” he added.

Meanwhile, the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting, scheduled on April 5, was postponed due to sessions of Senate and National Assembly, according to Secretary General Nayyer Bukhari. He said the decision was taken as most members have to attend sessions and would not be able to attend the CEC meeting.