The no-trust vote fiasco in the Senate has caused serious distrust between the two main opposition parties, with leaders from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) suspecting each other.
The leaders of the two rival parties have found accusing each other – mostly in private – of playing a “dirty game” during the secret ballot on the no-trust motion against Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, in which the opposition alliance was defeated due to the betrayal of 14 legislators.
The PML-N’s Khawaja Asif and the PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman even made their “distrust” public by issuing statements accusing each other of damaging the opposition’s unity.
Even so, the two parties are unanimous in their view that there is a need for changing the rules regarding no-trust resolutions against the Senate chairman or deputy chairman.
PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced at a press conference in Lahore that the party would seek amendments to the parliamentary rules and constitution to do away with the requirement of a “secret ballot” during votes in the parliament.
He also expressed the hope that the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) would back this move, as it is part of its manifesto.
Though both the parties have formed their fact-finding committees to identify the defectors and suggest punitive action against them, background interviews with the members of the committees revealed that they have “very little hope” for success.
The PPP committee is to convene its first meeting tomorrow (August 6) in Islamabad.
An official announcement by the PPP says that the “fact-finding committee” will meet in Islamabad to “begin investigations into whether, and who, among party senators defected in the secret ballot in the last week no-confidence move against the Senate chairman”.
Former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani is the convener of the PPP committee, having representation from all the provinces with no sitting senator in it.
A committee member said they would discuss their terms of reference (ToR) and finalise a methodology to probe the matter that had brought embarrassment to the joint opposition.
Sources said the mistrust between the two parties had been there since the day they had submitted the no-trust motion against Sanjrani last week.
In one of the meetings, a PML-N senator sought a clarification from the PPP leaders over a reported meeting between former president Asif Ali Zardari, who is in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) custody, and a top property tycoon the night before the voting, allegedly to discuss how the no-confidence motion could be thwarted.
The PPP leaders, the sources said, categorically refuted these reports.
Similarly, after several complaints against the PML-N senators for not turning up for opposition meetings, the PPP’s Senator Rehman finally contacted Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, through former speaker Ayaz Sadiq, asking the PML-N president to ensure their attendance, the sources said.
Rehman has criticised the PML-N’s Khawaja Asif over his remarks on a TV channel against PPP senators, holding them responsible for the Senate debacle and terming the PPP’s move to form the fact-finding committee a “drama”.
She said that Asif had tried to destroy the opposition’s unity and asked the PML-N leadership to explain why.
Rehman said the PPP also had reservations over some parties in the opposition alliance, but did not express this in the larger interest of the opposition’s unity.
Addressing a news conference, PPP chairman Bilawal alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s close aide Jehangir Tareen and Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar had contacted PPP senators and attempted to persuade them (to vote for Sanjrani).
“The senators told me about this. I have full faith in my all senators, and I haven’t accepted the resignations of any of them. Propaganda is being made against them,” he said, advising the opposition parties not to indulge in the blame game.
“When it was alleged that the PML-N had cut a deal, I rejected it. Now, if someone from the opposition points a finger at my senators for foul play, it means he is pointing the finger at me,” Bilawal said.
In reply to a question about alleged interference of an intelligence agency in the Senate election, as alleged by National Party chief Hasil Bizenjo, the PPP chairman said: “I have no such reports. However, there had been involvement of non-democratic forces in Senate elections in the past.”
Bilawal
