Presidential address: Opposition devising strategy

Opposition political parties are mulling a joint strategy under the umbrella of combined opposition in relation to the address of President Mamnoon Hussain to a joint sitting of Parliament on Wednesday (June 01). Talking to Business Recorder, parliamentary leader of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the Senate, Senator Saeed Ghani said a meeting of the combined opposition will be convened at the parliament house ahead of a joint sitting to devise a joint strategy.
The meeting will be presided over by leader of the opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah along with leader of the house in Senate Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan. Ghani said that parliamentary leaders of all opposition political parties would be invited to attend and chalk out a joint strategy accordingly. "PPP has not yet devised a strategy for the joint session and if there is to be any, it would be from the platform of the joint opposition," Ghani added.
Murad Saeed, Member National Assembly, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said the party would definitely chalk out its strategy in the parliamentary party meeting on a joint session. About the joint strategy with other opposition political parties, he said the party would attend the meeting being convened by the leader of the opposition in National Assembly, adding the party was already part of the combined opposition on the issue of Panama leaks.
Another opposition political party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), is however, not yet clear about its line of action in this regard. When asked the party's parliamentary leader in Senate Colonel Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (Retd) indicated that the party has not yet formulated any 'special' strategy for the joint sitting. "We would attend the session and listen to the speech of President," he said.
The President has summoned a joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament to be addressed by him on Wednesday to kick off the fourth parliamentary year of the incumbent parliament, a constitutional obligation for the president to address a joint sitting on the advent of the new parliamentary year. The ruling party's sources said the President in his speech to the two houses would highlight the achievements of the PML-N government. In his speech, the sources said, the President would update the Parliament on government's achievements in economic sector, the ongoing development projects including China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as well as foreign policy 'achievements'.