HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has said that PPP’s Sindh Assembly members have already started handing over resignations to their party leadership and dismissed the federal government’s unconcern over the issue as feigned, reminding it that the parliament will lose value without presence of opposition members.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government was telling people that it was least concerned about the resignations but in reality the absence of opposition would render National Assembly ineffective and one-sided, he said.

Khuhro told journalists at the residence of a local party leader here on Saturday that at least 50 per cent members of National Assembly belonged to opposition parties and if they quit, it would be tantamount to a massive no-confidence move against the government.

He said the resignations would also impede upcoming Senate election as it were the provincial assemblies that elected Senate members. Pakistan Democratic Movement’s public meetings had unnerved PTI government but the more the federal government tried to stop opposition the sooner it would be ousted, he said.

When the government failed to stop opposition from holding public meetings, it arrested DJ Butt and threatened event managers. If the public meetings did not have any impact then why the prime minister was bent on stopping them, he said.

He argued that more cases of coronavirus infection were reported from cities where public meetings were not held. In fact, PTI was using coronavirus as a pretext to stop ongoing opposition movement, he said.

He believed Election Commission of Pakistan was not allowed to work independently and said the ECP did not take notice of coronavirus spread in Gilgit-Baltistan election held on Nov 15.

He said the prime minister kept repeating that he would not give NRO to opposition though the opposition had never sought any NRO. Neither any court nor the Constitution barred opposition parties from carrying out their political activities, therefore, the PDM would go ahead with its public meeting in Lahore on Sunday, he said.

He said that Sheikh Rashid would not be able to stop the opposition from holding jalsas. Even high court had rejected government’s application against PDM public meetings, he said, adding despite its movement against the federal government, PPP would never support undemocratic steps because opposition was only demanding early election.

He informed that PPP had invited PDM leadership to attend the death anniversary of its slain leader Benazir Bhutto in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto on Dec 27.

Meanwhile, PPP MPAs Rana Hameer Singh (reserved seat) and Taj Mohammad Mallah from Badin handed over their resignations to Khuhro during the press conference.

Earlier, Khuhro also addressed a ceremony at Government College University Kali Mori where he inaugurated a fleet of GCU’s buses for students.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2020