-Bilawal rejects PDM’s show-cause notice
-Demands ‘unconditional apology’
-Directs members to resign from PDM
From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: Pakistan People Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday has announced that his political party is resigning from all posts of the opposition alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, while addressing a press conference in Karachi after chairing the central executive committee (CEC) session, made the announcement for resigning from all posts of the opposition alliance in a protest to the issuance of show-cause notice.
Bilawal also demanded to tender an unconditional apology before PPP and Awami National Party (ANP) for issuing show-cause notices. He said that there is no such example of issuing show-cause notices to parties in a political alliance.
He strongly criticised PDM to adopt an action plan against the democratic norms. He censured Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz without naming it, saying that no show-cause notice was issued when five seats were given to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Punjab.
In Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), an attempt was made to seize the right of PPP’s opposition leader by PML-N. He said that PPP resists the politics of opposition versus opposition and the political strategies of the opposition should be designed on the basis of equality. “We are standing side by side with the ANP and we will take decisions after consultations. PPP is a political party and we respect all opposition parties as well.”
“The doors are open for all political parties to topple the incumbent government and our target should be exposing the incompetence of the current government. We think that a working relationship should be established between political parties.”
According to Bilawal, the CEC maintained that resignations from the assemblies should be an “atom bomb, last resort” option. Resigning from the parliament had been a serious bone of contention between the PPP and other PDM parties, with the former opposing it and the latter favouring it.
“That is and will remain our stance, we think that this stance has proven to be correct, that we must not abandon parliament, the electoral battleground it has been vindicated,” Bilawal said, adding that PDM had exposed the government by taking part in the recent by-polls. The PPP leader said if his party had agreed with the view of the other PDM parties and boycotted the election then the PTI would have won those seats and “it would have been a sad day for Pakistan”.
“We defeated the government in the Senate and defeated them on their pitch,” Bilawal emphasised. He said other PDM parties had never addressed the PPP’s concerns regarding the “dangers” of abandoning the parliament when the government’s majority is so “slim”.
“We will not undermine the gains the PPP has achieved at the whims of another party. Those who wish to resign should do so but no one should try and impose their will and dictation on any other political party,” he added, declaring that the PPP will continue on the path of “consistent and firm opposition of the government”.
On Sunday, as the CEC meeting started, Bilawal tore apart the show-cause notice issued to it by the PDM in a clear message to the alliance that the future relied entirely on mutual respect.
The CEC was scheduled to conclude by the sunset on Sunday, but as discussions on multiple issues prolonged the sitting at Bilawal House, there was consensus among 50 party leaders attending the meeting from across the country to continue the session till Monday (today).
The PDM already suffered a blow last week when the Awami National Party quit it over its “hijacking by some member parties”. In his presser today, Bilawal stressed that both politics and politics of alliance were done with “respect and equality”.
“The PPP CEC demands an unconditional apology to the ANP and the PPP for this obnoxious conduct. The PPP stands by the ANP in this regard and will not abandon them under any circumstances,” he said. He added that for opposition politics to succeed, there must be “working relationships” within opposition parties and that there was no concept of show-cause notices in democratic movements.
“The individual office-bearers responsible for this act may not be aware as they’ve never played a part in any democratic movement in the past but I would like to remind you that we’ve seen the movement for the restoration of democracy,” he said, recalling that while there were many differences within the movement, no show-cause notices were issued.
Apparently referring to the actions of other PDM parties, Bilawal said no show-cause notice had been issued “when someone was given the permission to go abroad by circulation; when muk-muka (secret deal) was done with the PTI and GDA in Sindh; when muk-muka has been going on in Punjab with the PTI and [Chief Minister Usman] Buzdar for three years; when there was no implementation on the PDM action plan; and when there was violation of the PDM action plan”.
