Lahore once again remained the hub of political activity on Wednesday as heads of three main opposition parties spent a very busy day in the metropolitan.
Earlier in the day, the head of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman reached the residence of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif in Model Town where both leaders discussed the strategy to oust the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
After some time, both leaders were joined by another major player of power politics, former president Asif Ali Zardari where the PML-N hosted a lunch in honor of the opposition parties. The meeting between the leaders of the opposition continued for a couple of hours and was also joined by PML-N supermo Nawaz Sharif from London through video link.
According to insiders, a consensus was developed over Shehbaz’s name as the next PM in the post no-confidence motion scenario. Sources claimed that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman, Zardari was given the task for the success of no-confidence motion against PM Khan keeping in view the abilities of the former president, who was an expert of drawing-room politics.
Zardari also enjoyed good relations with many government allies including the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid’s (PML-Q’s) Chaudhry brothers and therefore he took this task.
The PPP leader also conveyed to Shehbaz that he had invited PML-Q’s Chaudhry Parvez Elahi at his residence in Bilawal House where he would convince him to support the no-confidence motion. The sources further claimed that Zardari told Shehbaz that he wanted to see him as the next prime minister of Pakistan. Similarly, the former president had earlier conveyed to Elahi that he wanted him as Punjab’s chief minister. However, no consensus could be made yet over Elahi’s name in the top slot of Punjab as senior PML-N leaders showed severe reservations over his name as the CM keeping in view his party’s thin numerical strength in the Punjab Assembly.
“It will not be a good decision handing over Punjab to Chaudhrys as it may damage our party in the province that is our stronghold,” a senior PML-N leader told Minute Mirror on the condition of anonymity. The fate of Punjab would be decided later as our first focus would be change in the centre, the opposition leaders agreed.
The heads of opposition parties decided to leave the no-confidence motion in Punjab and against the National Assembly speaker for some time as the primary focus should be PM Khan.
“If the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan goes successful in National Assembly then the change in Punjab will be inevitable,” the participants agreed. It was also decided in the meeting that the motion against PM would be moved in the National Assembly suddenly to give minimum time to the government to prepare any contingency plan. The participants also mandated Zardari to contact the allies of the government with free hand.
PML-N’s Kh Saad Rafique, Rana Sanaullah, Maryam Aurangzeb, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl’s (JUI’F’s) Maulana Amjad Khan and PPP’s Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were also part of the meeting.
Later, JUI-F chief visited the residence of Chaudhrys at Zahoor Elahi Road seeking their support for the proposed no-confidence motion against the premier. It was the second meeting of Rehman with Chaudhrys in just a few days.
Chaudhrys sought two days from Rehman to give their response as they said that they needed to further discuss the matter within their party. “We are in contact with 11 more MNAs and we want to take them into confidence first,” Chaudhrys were quoted as saying.
