Islamabad: Pakistan’s opposition parties are seemingly in disarray and demoralised after a loud and clear message by senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) which is a coalition partner of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that any move to dislodge Prime Minister Imran Khan is bound to fail.
Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — the Opposition’s multi-party alliance sans Pakistan People’s Party — has recently announced to move a vote of no-trust against the prime minister in the National Assembly of Pakistan and utilize all options to make it a success.
They are also going to stage a protest rally in Islamabad on March 23, which is also the National Day of Pakistan.
On the other hand, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is also set for a solo flight against the government by starting a long march on Islamabad from February 27 and has already announced its support to the PDM’s ambitious plan.
For this purpose both the PDM and the PPP leaders have been holding meetings even with those political parties which are currently part of the federal cabinet as allies of the government.
Setback for oppositions efforts
However, their efforts and hectic meetings received a setback after Federal Minister for Water Resources Moonis Elahi, who is senior PML-Q leader addressing a symposium on Pakistan’s Hydropower Development in Global Perspective, in a direct message to the PM who was also present at the event and indirect snub to the PDM and its like-minded PPP clarified that his parry was not going to be part of any move or the no-trust vote aimed to dislodge the prime minister.
“The country’s political environment is like a circus (tamasha) and there is nothing substantial in it. We are political people and it’s our job to meet other politicians,” he said.
It may be mentioned here the PDM President and chief of the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman and leader of the the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) opposition leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif recently met PML-Q’s senior leaders and sought their party’s support.
Besides meeting the PML-Q, they also held a meeting with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leaders and talked about possiblity of joining hands to send the government packing.
Whereas PML-Q leader Moonis Elahi’s remarks seemed to calm the PM’s nerves, they also unnerved the opposition parties which were earlier hoping to win over the PML-Q.
PPP senior leader Qamar Zaman Kaira in a talk show took exception to Moonis Elahi’s “circus” or “tamasha” statement and said he (Elahi) should stop receiving guests at his residence to avoid such tamasha.
