Pakistan People's Party (PPP) will try to forge a coherent and unified opposition in the National Assembly by creating cordial relations with Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), top PPP leaders said on Saturday.
After being nominated as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khushid Shah started contacting leaders of other opposition parties, including JUI-F, MQM and PTI in a bid to create such unity. Khurshid Ahmed Shah later told media persons that his party, which had followed a policy of reconciliation over the past five years, would give "a new meaning to reconciliation among opposition parties".
He said that overcoming differences among various political parties was "a great challenge" and his party had decided to take PTI's leadership into confidence about forming a strong opposition in the National Assembly. He said that drone strikes would pose a bigger challenge to the new government than the ongoing energy crisis. He also warned against efforts to create a 'forward bloc' within PPP lawmakers in the Senate. Shah said that such a move would be harmful for democracy and expressed the hope that Nawaz Sharif would not support such an effort. The PPP leader said that his party would support PML-N in "carrying out accountability", but would not "allow political victimization".