ISLAMABAD:
Yousuf Raza Gilani of PPP was officially appointed as the Senate opposition leader on Friday.
The Senate secretariat issued a statement announcing the PPP leader’s appointment.
The PPP had 21 seats in the upper house and was assured of support by the Awami National Party (ANP) and Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M). The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had 18 seats, whereas the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam had five.
Gilani was accompanied by PPP leaders Sherry Rehman, Rubina Khalid and others during the submission of the application.
The 10-party opposition alliance – the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – has been battling differences after the PPP disagreed on making en masse resignations from assemblies conditional to the long march.
The party’s co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, also asked PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan from London, and face jail together with everyone.
The other hotly-contested issue between the two parties is the nomination for the post of leader of the opposition for which both the parties insisted on their candidates.
The PML-N accused the PPP of deviating from its earlier commitment made during a PDM meeting that the opposition leader in Senate would be from PML-N. On the other hand, the PPP maintains that the position should go to the largest opposition party in the house – the PPP.
PDM President Maulana Fazlur Rehman swung into action on March 25, making contacts with the leadership of both parties and asked them to halt the on-going war of words between them.
“I have spoken to the leadership of the PML-N and PPP and told both the parties to stop making statements against each other,” Fazl, who also heads the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) said. “Disagreeing statements will harm the PDM’s cause.”
