ISLAMABAD - Senior Pakistan People’s Party leader Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar yesterday said the PPP’s decision to seek Balochistan Awami Party’s vote for the leader of the Opposition’s slot in the Senate was “not correct.”

Senator Khokhar said the some other recent decisions taken by the Pakistan Democratic Movement had also not gone down well in the public.  “The people are sick and tired of rising inflation. Unemployment rate is at an all-time high. They want to get rid of this government. The infighting between the Opposition parties has given breathing space to an anti-people government,” he said in a statement. 

Khokhar added: “On the issue of resignations, the other parties had a weak argument. But at the same time, the PPP’s decision on the Leader of Opposition in Senate was also not correct. The pressure on the PPP to resign is unnecessary while the PPP, too, should not have taken support from BAP.”

The PPP leader believed that “taking votes from the ruling alliance has damaged our ideological narrative. If we want to take back space in other provinces, we have to give priority to the issues of the people rather than indulging in power politics.”

Senator Khokhar said he hopes the PPP’s Central Executive Committee will look into these issues. “Difference of opinion is a democratic right and I hope my statement will also be taken in the same light,” he added.

Last week, the PPP had rounded 30 Senators and gone ahead to secure the leader of the Opposition’s slot for its candidate, Yousaf Raza Gillani, without the PDM’s backing.

The numbers comprised 21 Senators from the PPP, two Senators from the Awami National Party, one Senator of the Jamaat-e-Islami, two independents and a group of four ‘independents’ led by Senator Dilawar Khan that broke away from the Balochistan Awami Party to support Gillani.

This drew strong reaction from of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) as Maryam Nawaz lashed out publicly at PPP for “sacrificing everything for a minor, inconsequential office.”

Yesterday, PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazal)’s Abdul Ghafoor Haideri declared they will not accept Gillani as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. The decision came during a meeting to discuss the situation following Gillani’s notification.

The PPP said that it will not accept PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif as the Opposition leader in the National Assembly if the PML-N and allies did not recognise Gillani as the leader of the Opposition in the Senate.