ISLAMABAD: Angry with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) over their recent act of supporting the government in the parliament during the passage of the FATF-related legislation, a number of smaller opposition parties now want the country’s two major parties to sign a Charter of Democracy (CoD)-like document or an agreement to formalise the opposition’s alliance before convening an already-delayed Multi-Party Conference (MPC).

This demand from the smaller parties, including the nationalist parties from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, came during a meeting of nine opposition parties — other than the PPP and the PML-N — at the residence of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in Islamabad late on Thursday night, Dawn learnt from sources here on Saturday.

The final decision in this regard, however, has been left with the Rehbar Committee, which is expected to meet next week under its convener Akram Durrani. The sources said the demand to sign the agreement would be put before the PPP and the PML-N in the committee’s meeting.

The Rehbar Committee had been constituted in October last year when the JUI-F held an anti-government long march and staged a protest sit-in in Islamabad. The main purpose of the committee was to devise a joint strategy for the sit-in and to hold negotiations with the government to resolve the standoff.

However, the Rehbar Committee remained ineffective as the PPP and the PML-N only participated in the sit-in symbolically and it was Maulana Fazlur Rehman himself who negotiated with the government team and finally called off the 13-day sit-in abruptly.

Besides Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) president Aftab Sherpao, Awami National Party (ANP) leader Amir Haider Khan Hoti and Senator Mir Kabur and Ayub Malik of the National Party (NP), the meeting at the Maulana’s residence was also attended by chief of his own faction of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

One of the participants told Dawn that a number of leaders who had attended the meeting harshly criticised the PPP and the PML-N for “damaging the opposition’s unity” in the past by ditching them at crucial junctures. He said they had a very candid discussion on the country’s political issues and called for devising a strategy to stop the interference of other “institutions” in the elections and key state affairs.

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The sources said some senior leaders, including Maulana Fazlur Rehman, tried to pacify the angry members, telling them that they had no options but to trust these two major parties and take them along if they wanted to launch a forceful campaign against the government.

During a brief news conference after the meeting, when a reporter asked if they had decided to seek any written commitment from the PPP and the PML-N, the JUI-F chief simply said that such a proposal could only be decided by the Rehbar Committee.

The Maulana, however, dispelled the impression that there was any rift within the opposition’s ranks. He said the opposition was united in their demand that the country needed fresh and transparent general elections in the country without any outside interference.

The Maulana said the opposition parties were of the view that there was a need to reconstitute the Election Commission of Pakistan and devise a system that no other institution could interfere in the election process. Similarly, he said that all the opposition parties wanted supremacy of the Constitution and parliament. He claimed that most of the reservations of the parties had been removed after PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif had visited him last week.

The JUI-F chief said that he had arranged the meeting as he had already called it before Mr Sharif’s visit and it was delayed because of the death of NP president Mir Hasil Bizenjo.

When contacted, the leaders of both the PPP and the PML-N said that so far they had not received any demand regarding the written commitment from the smaller opposition parties.

PML-N’s information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb claimed that after last week’s meeting between Maulana Fazl and Mr Sharif, the Rehbar Committee had already been given the task to decide the agenda, time and place for the MPC.

Similarly, PML-N’s secretary general Ahsan Iqbal dispelled the impression that there was disunity in the opposition’s ranks.

Commenting on the meeting of the nine parties at the Maulana’s residence, Mr Iqbal said the JUI-F chief had informed Mr Sharif that since he had already convened this meeting of the smaller parties, therefore, it had become necessary for him to hold this meeting before convening the meeting of the Rehbar Committee.

When asked about the demand of the smaller parties regarding signing of an agreement, the PML-N secretary general said that his party also wanted to expand and renew the CoD which had originally been signed by the PPP and the PML-N in 2006 during the military rule under Gen Pervez Musharraf. He, however, said the document could be signed at the MPC, instead of the Rehbar Committee.

It was after fully facilitating the government in the passage of a number of FATF-related bills in parliament at the cost of the opposition’s unity that Mr Sharif had met Maulana Fazlur Rehman at the latter’s residence last week and vowed to make efforts to unite the opposition parties on one platform in order to convene the MPC in the near future.

“It has been decided that all the parties will be united. It has been decided that we will go together. The Rehbar Committee will meet and the all parties’ conference [of the opposition] will also be held,” Mr Sharif had stated during a brief media chat with Maulana Fazl after their meeting.

However, in response to a question as to who would host the MPC, the JUI-F chief said: “I don’t know” and then in the second breath stated that “Shahbaz Sharif is the opposition leader”, meaning thereby that like the PPP, the JUI-F also wants the PML-N to host the opposition parties’ gathering for the purpose of devising a strategy to launch an anti-government drive in the country.

Maulana Fazl had stated that he had told the PML-N president that he had already convened a meeting of other smaller parties, including the nationalist parties, which were unhappy with the PPP and PML-N for their role in parliament during the passage of the bills to fulfil the conditions of the Financial Action Task Force and that he would come back to the two major opposition parties after consulting them.

The Maulana said they were in an agreement that they needed to move forward under a “joint strategy” as “division within the opposition and lack of unity at this stage will be detrimental for Pakistan and its people”.

Asked if the JUI-F was again ready to believe the two major opposition parties despite their past role of “ditching” the smaller opposition parties on a number of crucial occasions, Maulana Fazl simply said that Mr Sharif’s arrival at his residence had removed most of the concerns in this regard and it would not be an issue.

Initially, some two months back, it was PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari who had announced a plan to convene an MPC to devise a final strategy to oust the present rulers. Mr Bhutto-Zardari then met Mr Sharif and the JUI-F chief in Lahore and all the leaders vowed to convene the MPC and launch an agitation movement against the government.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2020