ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leaders have removed the phone numbers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Awami National Party’s (ANP) leaders removed from the opposition alliance’s WhatsApp group on Tuesday.
According to sources, the leaders whose contacts were removed from the WhatsApp group include PPP leaders Yousaf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira, and ANP’s Mian Iftikhar. PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal, who is the group admin removed the phone numbers of all these leaders, sources said.
The move came shortly after a meeting of the PDM- constituent parties with its chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in the chair in Islamabad. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Maulana Fazl said both the parties still had time to reconsider their decision to quit the alliance and contact the PDM.
“Even today, both the parties have the chance to review their decision,” the PDM chief said. It was called a day after PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari announced his party’s departure from the alliance.
Both the PPP and the ANP parted ways after they were served show-cause notices by the PDM to explain why they sought the support of a government (BAP) and got Gillani elected as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate without the alliance’s blessing.
Fazlur Rehman, in his press conference today, said that both the leaders of the parties “should not have adopted such behavior”. All political parties of the alliance have “equal status”. However, the PDM does have an administrative structure as well, the PDM chief said.
“The majority of our decisions were made with the accord between all parties. Candidates for Chairman Senate, Deputy Chairman Senate and Leader of Opposition in Senate were decided by consensus,” Fazal said.
“Several times an issue ended up not being wholly resolved. However, we brought to the fore whatever progress was made on it,” Fazlur Rehman added.
Earlier, due to increasing differences among the PDM, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has torn up the show cause notice issued by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan with the approval of alliance parties.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari chaired a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Sunday to discuss its response to the show-cause notice sent to it by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) leadership.
Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, “We do politics for the sake of honor, there is nothing more than honor. We rejected this show-cause notice,” he added.
On this occasion, Yousuf Raza Gilani offered to resign as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate in a bid to mend cracks in the ranks of PDM, sources informed.
Gilani said that he was ready to tender resignation as Senate opposition leader right now if Bilawal allows him. He maintained that the other opposition parties should avoid leveling baseless allegations on his party. PPP’s Central Executive Committee rejected his resignation offer, sources added.
