ISLAMABAD: The heads of the opposition Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will go into a huddle on the first day of the year 2021 (today) at Raiwind in an effort to come up with a united stance on the issue of en masse resignations and participation in the upcoming elections on a number of seats of the national and provincial assemblies and the Senate.

PDM president and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz, after their late-night meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday, had announced that they wanted to provide an opportunity to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to present his viewpoint on the issues of resignations and participation in the coming elections after which they would try to develop a consensus.

PML-N’s supremo Nawaz Sharif had also participated in the meeting of the PML-N and the JUI-F leaders via a video link from London in which the leaders of the two parties discussed various options in the wake of the PPP’s reluctance over the proposal of en masse resignations as part of their anti-government campaign.

According to the Maulana, the PDM leaders in their meeting on Friday (today) would make “final decisions” on key issues and devise the future course of action.

“We will like to directly hear from Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Let’s see what he presents before the PDM,” said Ms Nawaz in response to a question during the brief media chat with Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Issues of resignations, by-polls on assembly seats and Senate elections on top of agenda

Both the Maulana and Ms Nawaz welcomed Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s announcement that all the future decisions would be made collectively from the PDM platform and termed it a “positive attitude”.

Responding to a question, Ms Nawaz said that so far her party had made no decision regarding participation in the by-elections and the Senate polls. She said whatever decision they would make in this regard, it would be from the PDM’s platform.

Speaking at a news conference after presiding over a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee in Karachi on Dec 29, the PPP chairman had stated that the CEC believed “that if we (joint opposition) take up the challenge of Senate elections collectively we can make a better impact and achieve larger success.”

He had said that he would take up the CEC’s decisions before the PDM leadership and discuss a further plan of the opposition’s movement against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government.

An interesting point came up during the PPP chairman’s presser when he was asked about the details of the discussion and opinions of the party leaders at the CEC meeting but he avoided to give details.

Asked about the “strong opinion” within the PPP for return of the PML-N supremo to the country, Mr Bhutto-Zardari preferred to move on to the next question.

Sources said that PML-N’s supreme leader would also address the PDM leaders through a video link from London on Friday. According to an official announcement, Mr Bhutto-Zardari and former president Asif Zardari would also attend the meeting via a video link from Karachi. However, a party delegation comprising former prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira and Farhatullah Babar will attend the PDM’s meeting at Raiwind.

Political experts are terming the PDM’s meeting as significant as it is happening after the PPP’s CEC meeting in which the party had decided to take part in the by-polls on the vacant national and provincial assemblies seats and the Senate whereas the other component parties of the PDM, including the JUI-F and the PML-N, are of the view that they should not provide any legitimacy to the present legislatures which they have announced they will leave.

The first phase of the PDM’s anti-government movement had come to an abrupt end with the public meeting in Lahore on Dec 13 as the leadership had failed to announce any future plan to intensify their campaign. Though, the PDM leaders had declared they would make an announcement regarding district-wise protests, shutterdown and wheel-jam strikes and the long march during the Lahore public meeting, no such plan was announced from the stage.

Later, the PDM leaders set Jan 31 deadline for Prime Minister Imran Khan to resign or face a decisive long march to Islamabad sometime in February.

It was after a meeting of the heads of the constituent parties of the PDM in Islamabad on Dec 8 that Maulana Fazlur Rehman had announced that all the national and provincial lawmakers belonging to the opposition would hand over their resignations individually to the heads of their parties by Dec 31.

The Maulana had announced the decision during a press talk after presiding over a more than four-hour-long summit of the alliance which was also addressed by Mr Sharif and former president Zardari through video link from London and Karachi, respectively.

The PDM leadership, however, had failed to come up with an agreed plan regarding the use of their most lethal weapon of en masse resignations and its timing and Maulana Fazl simply announced that the steering committee of the PDM would meet in Islamabad the next day “to decide the schedule for further rallies and demonstrations and the date for long march towards Islamabad”.

The next day, however, before the meeting of the steering committee could take place, the PDM leaders once again gathered at the residence of the Maulana for a luncheon meeting after which Mr Bhutto-Zardari categorically declared that his party would come out with a final decision regarding en masse resignations after discussing it at its CEC.

Sources in the PDM said that the PPP leaders during the meeting were not very enthusiastic to the proposed move and Mr Zardari was not in favour of Mr Sharif’s proposal to hand over the resignations to Maulana Fazl for future use and it was on his proposal that finally other parties agreed on the PPP’s suggestion that the resignations should be collected by the party heads.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2021