ISLAMABAD - Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P), despite being government’s coalition partner, may put weight behind opposition over the matter of issuing production order of opposition MNAs. This would be the second allied partner of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s government for supporting opposition, as Balochistan National Party (Mengal) had already supported opposition side on the matter of non-issuance of production order. The opposition parties have been registering strong protests in the last four National Assembly proceedings for allegedly ‘not giving due right to arrested MNAs.  

The opposition had staged walkout from the proceedings of the National Assembly from not allowing arrested MNAs to attend the proceedings of the house. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP’s) MNA and erstwhile president Asif Ali Zardari, former opposition leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N’s) MNAs Rana Sana Ullah, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Khwaja Saad Rafique are currently behind bars in different cases. The speaker has not issued production order of PML-N’s MNAs Rana Sana Ullah,PPP-P’s MNA  Khsursheed Shah for any of session after their arrest. 

Sources said MQM-P would support opposition in upcoming session of the national assembly on the matter of issuing production order for opposition members. It may be mentioned here BNP(Mengal), a coalition partner  of government, had already supported opposition in their walkout and protest against government for not allowing arrested MNAs to attend the proceedings of the house. On the other hands, National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser said that he was not facing any pressure from Prime Minister Imran Khan and any other government member about not issuing production order.