KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that being the largest party among the PDM in the Senate it was his party’s right to elect an opposition leader in the upper house of parliament.
Bilawal while addressing a press conference in Karachi on Saturday, in an apparent reference to criticism hurled at his party by PML-N leaders said, “Everyone had aspired for Yousuf Raza Gillani to be the Senate chairman. There should have been no reservations in him getting elected as the Leader of the Opposition,” he added.
By rejecting allegations of being a selected opposition in Senate he said, “The victory of Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani on March 3 was a historical one,” he said adding it was the first defeat of the “selected regime” at the hands of the Opposition.
“Our struggle against the Senate chairman election will continue and we will use our legal right. We will file for a judicial review against the IHC court verdict,” he said.
He stressed that the Senate was a polling station and the proceedings on the day were part of the election process and can be challenged in a court of law.
“I respect the leaders of PML-N including Maryam. I have never criticized Maryam during testing times and will never do so in the future,” said the PPP chairman.
Bilawal also advised the PML-N leaders to stop mudslinging against PPP, saying that it will harm the opposition alliance, which was formed last year to dislodge PM Imran Khan’s government.
“PDM will give tough time to the government inside and outside the parliament and will continue our struggle to overthrow the government,” said Bilawal.
Earlier in the day, PML-N Vice President Maryam said a clear line had been drawn between PDM and PPP over its move for the “smallest slot” in Senate which she said damaged PDM’s struggle for democracy.
Maryam Nawaz has strongly criticized Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) for ‘sacrificing everything for a ‘minor, inconsequential office’.
“I deeply regret that despite understanding the situation, Yousuf Raza Gillani has dealt a massive blow to democracy and our cause for a very minor and inconsequential office,” Maryam said while talking to journalists in Jatti Umra.
“I am glad a visible line has been drawn,” she said, adding, “On one side there are those who are sacrificing their own wellbeing for the public and on the other side are those who have sacrificed all their principles for the smallest of gains.”
In response to a question regarding the future of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), the PML-N leader said, “I am waiting for PDM President Maulana Fazlur Rahman to make his position on this matter public.”
“I also feel this damage has been done primarily to you because the people are watching who is standing where and who is continuing to struggle,” she maintained.
She further said that this wasn’t the PDM’s defeat. “It is the defeat of the people who sacrificed their principles for an inconsequential office,” Maryam added.
