ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari are under immense pressure not to vote for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif in the prime minister’s election this week, sources said.

Senior PPP leaders told The Nation that some party leaders believed that the party MNAs should cast their votes for Shehbaz Sharif as per the commitment with the joint opposition but several advised the leadership to skip the PM’s election or abstain from voting.

A close aide of the Bhutto family said that Zardari would make a ‘big sacrifice’ if he voted for younger Sharif for the PM’s slot, though the opposition is unlikely to win against the PTI-led alliance spearheaded by Imran Khan. “So many PPP leaders and most of the workers are against voting for Shehbaz. But since the decision has been made (by the joint opposition), the PPP leadership is not expected to announce a U-turn. They (Bilawal and Zardari) personally vote for him or not is a different issue,” he said.

He added, “I think if we are going for a joint opposition, then it has to happen (Bilawal and Zardari have to vote for Sharif), though our workers are resenting hard and you know what is going on in the social media.”

In the past, Shehbaz Sharif has been vocal against Zardari and even threatened to drag him in the streets and force him to return the ‘looted’ money. His elder brother, Nawaz Sharif, however, remained more diplomatic. Ultimately, Shehbaz had to publicly apologise to Zardari but it would still be a nightmare for the PPP to vote for him in the PM’s election.

The PML-N has nominated Shehbaz as its parliamentary leader and candidate for the office of the prime minister. The PPP has nominated Khurshid Shah for the slot of the National Assembly speaker. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal’s Asad Mehmood has been nominated as the joint opposition’s candidate for the deputy speaker’s slot. All the opposition parties have agreed to support each other’s candidates to give a tough time to the PTI.

Another PPP leader said that it would only be known as to who voted for Shehbaz at the vote count. “If Zardari and Bilawal voted for him or not will be evident from the vote count. In principle, the PPP should vote for him or announce its own candidate,” he added.

On Sunday, Bilawal and Zardari jointly chaired a meeting of the PPP parliamentary party here to discuss future line of action before the inaugural session of the newly-elected National Assembly today (August 13).

I look forward to playing the role of a strong and democratic opposition inside the Parliament. We will work hard to focus on people’s issues and public-service agenda, Bilawal said while addressing the party leaders. He said that the PPP was resolute in its ideology and the slogan that “We will fulfil the promise made by Benazir Bhutto to save Pakistan.”

The PPP politics, he said, was based on issues concerning the people. “Pakistan needs tolerance, peace and progress and the PPP is dedicated to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Pakistan,” he said.

Bilawal said that the PPP would raise issues of the people in the Parliament. He said that the PPP would tread the path of democracy and would continue to fight for the rights of the people.

Zardari also addressed the gathering and said that the PPP would continue to strengthen democracy in the country. He said that PPP achieved excellent results in Sindh and now needed to focus on Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. He said that South Punjab province was the PPP’s mission and it wanted the South belt of Punjab to develop and prosper. He said that PPP would follow its manifesto from the opposition benches.

Farhatullah Babar, former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, former opposition leader in National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah, opposition leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman, Deputy Chairman Senate Salim Mandviwala, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Senator Rehman Malik, Rukhsana Bangash, Amir Fida Paracha, Jamil Soomro and Fouzia Habib attended the meeting, among others.

Reports said that the PPP had not completely closed the doors for the PTI and a ‘deal’ for cooperation could not be out rightly ruled out.

On the other hand, senior PPP leaders said that the party was ‘under pressure’ from ‘hidden forces’ to join hands with the PTI in the centre to let Imran Khan run the government smoothly for the next 5 years.

On July 25, millions of Pakistanis voted to elect a new government and prime minister in a controversial election. Around 800,000 police and Army personnel had been deployed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country as the voting took place. Pakistan is a country of approximately 207 million people, out of which the number of registered voters is about 106 million. The PTI took the decisive lead by winning 116 general seats against the PML-N and PPP which won 64 and 43 seats, respectively. While the PML-N could not retain dozens of seats, the PPP won more seats than the 2013 polls.

In the 2013 polls, the PPP had lost heavily and the low-popularity readings continued till 2017. The party however, looked to make a comeback in Punjab with a few encouraging rallies in the populous province that decides who will rule the country in every general election.

Imran Khan is expected to invite Bilawal Bhutto and Shehbaz Sharif to his oath-taking ceremony. The PTI has already sought PPP’s support for its candidate for the speaker and deputy speaker’s election in the National Assembly. The leaders of the two parties met here to hold discussion on the inaugural National Assembly session.

The PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry said after the meeting that he had asked PPP’s Khurshid Shah to withdraw from the race in favour of its candidate Asad Qaiser for speaker NA. The moot was attended by PTI leaders Shafqat Mehmood, Asad Qaiser, Omar Ayub and others while Sherry Rehman and Naveed Qamar represented the PPP. Shah later said that his party would support all public and national interest legislation of the new government.