Rahbar Committee, an alliance of anti-government opposition parties having representation in the Parliament, has decided to convene an All Parties Conference (APC) of opposition parties to chalk out strategy against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government after Eid-ul-Azha.
This was announced by Convenor Rahbar Committee Akram Durrani at a press briefing on Friday after the committee meeting, which was attended by different opposition parties except Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).
"The date for the APC to map out strategy against the government would be finalised after consultations with the opposition leaders but it is confirmed the APC would take place after Eid," Durrani said.
Durrani slammed Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government, accusing the ruling lot of launching a witch hunt against the opposition leaders. The convenor Rahbar Committee condemned the arrests of opposition leaders including former PM Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and former president Asif Ali Zardari. "The selected PM and his government are on a mission to marginalize and destroy opposition," Durrani alleged.
He hailed the speech of Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the National Assembly earlier on Thursday in which he condemned the arrest of Maryam Nawaz at the hands of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills mega corruption case.
Durrani said the Rahbar Committee has decided that opposition parties would speedily investigate the possible defections of their members during no-confidence motion against Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani that proved unsuccessful. "The opposition parties would identify, if any, of their members was involved in switching his/her loyalties during voting on no-confidence motion and disciplinary action would be taken against the guilty senators," he said.
On August 1, in a highly embarrassing scenario for the joint opposition, Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani narrowly survived a no-confidence motion, just by three votes. The no-confidence motion was moved by all the opposition parties having representation in the Parliament except JI. In a dramatic turn of events, the joint opposition that had 64 votes in favour of the no-confidence resolution, ended up with only 50 votes at the voting stage in favour of opposition's joint candidate Hasil Bizenjo from National Party. This implied that 14 voters from the opposition had possibly defected in favour of Sanjrani. In 104-member Senate that presently has 103 members (Ishaq Dar has not taken oath as a senator,) the opposition needed 53 votes to prove majority against Sanjrani. A total number of 100 votes were cast, of which 50 votes went against Sanjrani, 45 in his favour and five votes were rejected. Two Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) senators Siraj ul Haq and Mushtaq Ahmad abstained from voting and did not attend the session. Chaudhry Tanvir from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) was abroad as he also did not show up at the session. The voting result indicated that even if all the five rejected votes belonged to opposition, still at least nine opposition senators have possibly voted for Sanjrani.
"On one hand our candidate for Chairman Senate Hasil Bizenjo was defeated in the no-confidence motion through a planted move and on the other hand, he has been summoned by a court for sharing his views regarding lack of transparency in the voting on no-confidence motion. Opposition leaders are being cornered from all sides, by hook or crook," Durrani said.
The first APC of the opposition parties was held on June 26 that had decided to bring no-confidence motion against chairman Senate. But in what came as a major setback to the opposition forces, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the two major political parties, turned down the APC's proposal to quit the Parliament - in a scenario that seriously undermined the efforts of smaller political groups to launch a full-fledged anti-government campaign. Moreover, JI, an opposition party that contested the last year's general elections in alliance with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) under the joint umbrella of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), refused to be part of the APC and did not attend the conclave. The Rahbar Committee was formed in the first APC. The panel was tasked to ensure implementation of decisions taken in APC. However, the key decisions taken in the first APC remain far from materialisation which also included the decision that opposition parties would hold joint public gatherings in all the four provinces against the federal government.