By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday claimed that Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is divided over resignations from the assemblies and long march.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, FM Qureshi said that PDM faced huge embracement as its Lahore power show miserably failed. Commenting on the two major parties of the PDM, Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, he said that former president Asif Ali Zardari has not taken any decision yet, while there is a clear division in the ranks of PML-N.
“One group is supporting Shehbaz Sharif’s narrative and the other is of Maryam Nawaz.” FM Qureshi said that submission of resignations from the assemblies with the party leadership is a ‘drama’, the resignations should have been submitted with the concerned speaker’s office, if the PDM is serious on the issue, he added.
Responding to the deadline given by the PDM to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government to resign, he asked why should Prime Minister Imran Khan resign? “PTI received over 17million votes in GE 2018.”
I want to make it very clear to the PDM leadership that PTI rejects their deadline and PM Imran Khan will not resign, neither assemblies will be dissolved, he vowed.
The foreign minister said that allegations of rigging after every election in the country have become a habit, the incumbent government wants to bring reforms with the help of the opposition but they are up to another thing.The demand for fresh elections by the PDM is unconstitutional, FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi maintained. Qureshi invited opposition for talks if they feel there is any issue related to the 18th amendment, but cannot negotiate on the corruption cases.
Moreover, “We reject your ultimatum. You say the prime minister should resign by Jan 31. We are categorically saying the prime minister of Pakistan will not step down. “You say assemblies should be dissolved. The prime minister has said and I am repeating [his words], assemblies will not be dissolved. The deadline stands rejected,” he said.
However, Qureshi said that the decision did not indicate the government’s “stubbornness”, and hinted at the possibility of a dialogue. “We are political people and are open-minded”. A day earlier, the PDM leadership had demanded the PTI-led government quit by January 31 or face an intensified opposition movement, including a long march to the capital.
The demand was made by PDM president Maulana Fazlur Rehman while speaking to the media in Lahore alongside PML-N’s Maryam Nawaz, PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and other opposition leaders. As part of the anti-government movement, Rehman said lawmakers from PDM member parties in the national and provincial assemblies will hand in their resignations to their party leaders by December 31.
Fazlur Rehman had said that if the government refused to quit by Jan 31, a meeting of the PDM’s leadership on February 1 will announce a long march towards Islamabad, the date of which will also be decided during the meeting. During today’s press conference, Qureshi claimed there was no consensus in the PDM over the matter of resignations. He also claimed that there were two factions in the PML-N — one which agreed with PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and the other which agreed with PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz.
“If you have consensus on resignations and are serious, then on the 31st, your resignations should reach the speaker and not the leadership of your parties. Submitting resignations to leadership is just for show.” Qureshi said that there was “no unity” in the PDM over the matter of the proposed long march either. “Why am I saying this? Because they said [in their presser] that a meeting of the PDM will be called on Feb 1 and then the decision will be taken after discussion and a date will be given.”
The minister termed the PDM’s Dec 13 rally in Lahore a “failure”, saying the PDM had been unable to mobilise the masses. If only the citizens of Lahore had been mobilised, the alliance would not have had to face disappointment, he said.
He said the lack of people at the rally showed the public’s “detachment” and the performance of the stock market the next day proved the rally had failed. “If there was any power in their rally, the stock market would be crashing, not going up,” he added.
