PPP and PML-N - A marriage made in heaven? NOT!

[MenInG]

LAHORE: Cracks have started to appear between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaderships after the latter showed no interest in mounting pressure on the incumbent federal government, ARY NEWS reported citing sources.

According to sources, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has left Lahore after a week-long visit and during the stay, several attempts were made to make contact with the PML-N leadership.

“The PML-N leadership did not give a satisfactory response to the approaches made by the PPP,” they said.

The sources said that the opposition had suggested holding a multi-party conference before the passage of federal Budget 2020-21. “The PML-N did not respond to the suggestion and even their lawmakers remained absent during budget debate,” they said.

Sources close to the PPP leadership said that since Shehbaz Sharif is the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, he should have led the charge against the government during the budget debate.

The former ruling party in the Punjab province seems uninterested in mounting pressure on the incumbent government, they said.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on June 28 said that the opposition parties have rejected the federal budget for 2020-21.

Bilawal Bhutto announced that the opposition had agreed to hold an all-parties conference in the next week after the recovery of the PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif from COVID-19.

However, despite his announcement to hold a second multi-party conference after Shehbaz Sharif’s recovery from COVID-19, no dates for the political event is announced yet.

https://arynews.tv/en/ppp-pml-n-federal-government/

 

[Savak]

Lol, why should the PML N take the PPP seriously? It was apparently because of the PPP, the opposition parties lost the bid to oust the Senate Chairman.

 

[Abdullah719]

PML-N, PPP turn on each other over privatisation process

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) turned on each other, while railing at the treasury benches during a heated debate on the privatisation policy of the government during the National Assembly session.

PML-N parliamentary leader Khawaja Asif said his party’s government fetched $10 billion from the sale of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) but PPP member Nafisa Shah responded that the PTCL was sold to a company that had no status and that it still owned the money.

Asif initiated the debate on the privatisation process. He credited former prime minister Nawaz Sharif for starting the privatisation policy. “Our privatisation policy was continued by the PPP and Pervez Musharraf governments,” he said.

“We sold PTCL for $10 billion,” he told the house. He then moved to plans for the privatisation of the Pakistan International Airlines. “We all fear that the PIA has been destroyed in one and a half month. If PIA is privatised in a non-transparent manner, we will go to court,” he said.

Asif was also critical of the ordinance related to the convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav. “Legislation is being brought to facilitate Kulbhushan. Had we done this, we would have been accused of being [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi’s friend.”

Asif railed against the presence of dual nationality holders in the federal cabinet. “The favourites and the dual-citizen ATMs are in the cabinet,” he alleged. “How could those who cannot sit in this assembly sit in the cabinet.”

Replying to Khawaja Asif, Federal Minister Murad Saeed unleashed a trenchant criticism of the previous PML-N governments. With mentioning any names, he said that he knew a politician who came through a shortcut.

He added that a former foreign minister was taking Rs1.5 million by working abroad but at that time, the question of patriotism was not raised come up. “Even their prime minister [Nawaz Sharif] turned out to be an Iqama holder.

Opposing the privatisation, PPP’s Nafisa Shah said that a commission should be formed to look into the sale of companies from the 1990s. “There is no benefit in selling the companies to the country. PTCL was sold to a company which had no status, while there are still outstanding arears.”

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2255877/pml-n-ppp-turn-on-each-other-over-privatisation-process

 

[Syed1]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PMLN?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PMLN</a> govt signed agreement for 30 wind power project of 50 Megawatt each for $130 million with 30% efficiency & per unit cost of Rs21. Whereas <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PTI?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PTI</a> govt has signed agreement for 10 similar projects for $60 Million each with 37% efficiency & per unit cost of Rs 6.<a href="https://twitter.com/ImranRiazKhan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ImranRiazKhan</a> <a href="https://t.co/tjB16xe0pt">pic.twitter.com/tjB16xe0pt</a></p>— Jhanzaib Bey (@Jhanzaib_S) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jhanzaib_S/status/1285696931692503043?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


30 wind plants by NS government at $130million each and per unit cost of Rs 21. 10 wind plants by IK government at $60million each and per unit electricity cost of Rs 6. Efficiency also greater by 7%..



Khata hai tu lagata bhi hai. This is how systemically they have eaten our country. I hope they pay for their sins in this life and next inshallah.

 

[saeedhk]

Both parties are corrupt to the core!

 

[Abdullah719]

Sana accuses Aitzaz of creating rift in opposition

LAHORE: PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah has accused PPP senior leader Aitzaz Ahsan of creating rift among opposition parties.

Talking to reporters on Thursday, Sana said: “Aitzaz is talking against PML-N and creating differences among the opposition parties. He is not well and he should better pay attention to his health.”

He said the man, who once commanded respect, was talking strange things.

“Mr Ahsan should not have gone against the cause of the opposition,” he said.

Earlier, Aitzaz had reportedly urged PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to take caution while dealing with the N-League and do politics independently instead of entering into any alliance in Punjab.

The comment was made in the backdrop of the reported reluctance of PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif to attend the proposed multi-party conference.

However, Bilawal later said the MPC would be held once Shahbaz got well.

Meanwhile, PML-N Secretary Information Marriyum Aurangzeb has demanded dissolution of the National Accountability Bureau and resignation of its chairman.

In a statement, Marriyum said after the latest decision of the Supreme Court the existence of NAB was nothing more than a failure and stubbornness to carry on with a failed institution.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1570806/sana-accuses-aitzaz-of-creating-rift-in-opposition

 

[Bewal Express]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PMLN?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PMLN</a> govt signed agreement for 30 wind power project of 50 Megawatt each for $130 million with 30% efficiency & per unit cost of Rs21. Whereas <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PTI?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PTI</a> govt has signed agreement for 10 similar projects for $60 Million each with 37% efficiency & per unit cost of Rs 6.<a href="https://twitter.com/ImranRiazKhan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ImranRiazKhan</a> <a href="https://t.co/tjB16xe0pt">pic.twitter.com/tjB16xe0pt</a></p>— Jhanzaib Bey (@Jhanzaib_S) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jhanzaib_S/status/1285696931692503043?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


30 wind plants by NS government at $130million each and per unit cost of Rs 21. 10 wind plants by IK government at $60million each and per unit electricity cost of Rs 6. Efficiency also greater by 7%..



Khata hai tu lagata bhi hai. This is how systemically they have eaten our country. I hope they pay for their sins in this life and next inshallah.

We had one guy looking to steal from a poor country and we have a patriot that is desperate to save every paisa. This is corruption by Nooras on a astronomical scale. And then we have the Uncle Tom's blame IK for high electricity prices.

 

[Abdullah719]

FATF bills again expose opposition disunity

ISLAMABAD: Cracks appeared in the ranks of the opposition only a week after an announcement by its leaders about a joint anti-government movement after Eid when on Thursday the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) protested against the act of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of helping the government in getting the FATF-related bills passed in parliament, and announced it would no longer cooperate with the two opposition parties in parliament in future.

The announcement was made by Senator Maulana Ataur Rehman, who is the brother of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri while speaking in the Senate soon after the passage of the two FATF-related legislations which their party had opposed.

Sources told Dawn that after getting the two bills passed from the National Assembly amid opposition’s protest on Wednesday evening, the government through Speaker Asad Qaiser established a contact with the opposition to have a smooth sailing over the legislations in the Senate, where the opposition is in a majority.

The opposition had protested over the passage of the bills in the assembly without accommodation of their amendments although the government had agreed to make them part of the bills at the parliamentary committee level.

Spoiler

The sources said it was PPP’s Sherry Rehman who made hectic efforts to ensure the presence of maximum number of opposition senators in the sitting to give a tough time to the government, if it refused to accept their amendments.

They said the opposition told the speaker that they would not hold talks with the government if Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi would be there, as he had violated the sanctity of the negotiations by disclosing the details of the informal discussions.

It was after an agreement was reached between the government team, comprising Law Minister Farogh Naseem and PTI’s chief whip Aamir Dogar, and PPP’s Sherry Rehman and Naveed Qamar at the residence of the speaker that the government summoned the new session of the National Assembly well after midnight in an unprecedented manner, thus making the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice a mere formality.

And presenting the report of the committee on the bills, its chairman Javed Abbasi, who belongs to the PML-N, praised Law Minister Naseem for accepting the opposition-proposed changes in the bills with an open heart.

When the government side appreciated the gesture shown by the PPP and the PML-N, the JUI-F members accused the two parties of always damaging the opposition’s unity.

“The way the opposition parties provided support to the government (over the bills) is regrettable. Our stance was not even heard,” said JUI-F’s Maulana Rehman.

He said by providing support to the government through the amendments, the two parties had exposed “opposition’s weakness”.

“We have a complaint with the two major opposition parties. They have always supported the government. They never tried to unite the opposition,” he said. “Therefore, I announce that from today onwards, the JUI-F cannot go together with the opposition.”

Later, his party colleague Maulana Haideri regretted that the two major opposition parties had never consulted them on key matters and if matters continued in the same way “it will be difficult for us to go together”.

The speeches by the two JUI-F senators provided an opportunity to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members to take the opposition to task over its announcement about launching an anti-government movement.

PTI’s Faisal Javed said on the one hand Maulana Fazlur Rehman was announcing that they would come out on the roads against the government with other opposition parties and on the other hand, his brother (Ataur Rehman) had announced parting of ways with the opposition alliance.

Senator Javed recalled that the PPP and PML-N had not supported the JUI-F when it had staged a sit-in in Islamabad in October last year. He said the PPP and the PML-N leaders went to the container of Maulana Sahib only to have “selfies” and the sit-in was only attended by the students of religious seminaries.

He said the people had rejected the narrative of the JUI-F regarding rigging in the last elections and economic situation in the country.

Senator Javed also targeted the PPP and PML-N in his speech by alleging that those who had been in politics because of military dictators like Gen Ayub Khan and Gen Ziaul Haq were today terming the present regime “the selected government”.

After the passage of the bills in Senate, PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and PPP’s Sherry Rehman lashed out at the government over its mishandling of the whole issue. They also criticised the government for trying to create a wrong impression about the opposition, by claiming that they had made their support to the FATF-related bills conditional to the government’s support to their proposed changes in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Ordinance.

Bilawal’s presser
While speaking at a news conference in the evening, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said the government was making even those legislations controversial which could have been passed easily. He said the government had “an undemocratic behaviour”.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari alleged that the government, by using the excuse of FATF, wanted to bring a legislation through which it could make any citizen go missing for six months. “The PPP could not allow this because our stance has been for democracy and basic human rights,” he said.

He said the government wanted to get dictatorial powers using the backdoor but the PPP would never allow this to happen.

The PPP chairman made it clear that FATF legislation had nothing to do with the NAB legislation. “They are two different issues,” he said.

The business community, he said, had met the army chief and their narrative was that NAB and business could not go together. He said after the Supreme Court’s verdict, NAB and democracy could not go together.

In response to a question, Mr Bhutto-Zardari said all the opposition parties together would decide the future course of action against the government.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1572102/fatf-bills-again-expose-opposition-disunity

 

[Abdullah719]

Fazl frustrated over lack of unity among opposition parties

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam -Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday expressed his frustration over the lack of unity among the ranks of opposition parties on a possible one-point agenda to topple the PTI government.

“The responsibility of sending this government home is not only on the shoulders of the ‘selectors’, but also on opposition parties who have failed to bring unity within their ranks so far. They [rulers] are benefiting from the cracks within the opposition parties,” the JUI-F chief said in response to a question while talking to reporters.

Maulana has been expressing his concerns over the lack of unity among the ranks of opposition political parties, spearheaded by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to agree on a possible one-point agenda to topple the government.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40011477/fazl-frustrated-over-lack-of-unity-among-opposition-parties