Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, highlighting the PPP’s numerous reservations, warned that the ruling PML-N would face the “biggest loss” if his party breaks its alliance with the government.
Differences between the PML-N-led coalition government and its key ally, the PPP, have been simmering for some time. A meeting last month between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari to restore trust apparently failed to end these disagreements.
During an interview with DawnNewsTV In the ‘Doosra Rukh’ programme, aired on Saturday, Senator Mandviwalla claimed that Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar realized that if the coalition breaks up, the PML-N will suffer the biggest loss.
Highlighting Deputy Prime Minister Dar’s efforts to find solutions to the issues between the two coalition allies, the senator said Dar was the “only one making efforts to bring the parties to the table. Nobody else does this.”
Mandviwalla highlighted that the Prime Minister’s Office was not implementing the directives issued by the Presidential House.
When asked if President Zardari was unhappy with the situation, he replied: “Of course, of course.
“If the president of Pakistan sends a directive […] and it is not implemented, then what will happen at the lower levels?” asked.
The PPP legislator’s statements come days after a meeting of the PPP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) was held, amid the party’s reservations that the government did not take him into account in decision-making and backtracked. of the promises he made to the party.
In the meeting, the PPP demanded that the federal government hold local elections in Punjab and Islamabad as per the agreement between the PPP and the government.
A resolution passed by the CEC expressed concern over the construction of controversial canals, demanded the immediate convening of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) meeting, which has been pending for 11 months, and called for the controversial canal issue to be raised urgently at the ICC.
“If the things they agreed upon are not implemented, the coalition will break up one day,” Mandviwalla warned, adding that during the CEC meeting he could “feel” that the alliance would not work.
He recalled: “At the CEC meeting, people were very unhappy with the PML-N. Even the Punjab [representatives] They were very dissatisfied with the Punjab government. The general recommendation of [leaders of] all the provinces was that we should no longer continue to be their ally.”
The PPP senator said it was a “big challenge” for the party leadership as its leaders called for breaking the alliance with the PML-N.
“They have not fulfilled any of the agreements we had reached.”
Mandviwalla added that in his opinion, the PPP leadership would now hand over to the PML-N the task of “finding a solution or breaking up.”
Responding to a question on whether the PPP would continue to negotiate with the PML-N over their differences, the lawmaker said: “We do not believe in stopping negotiations.”
When asked during a joint session of parliament about the reason for the postponement of four bills, Mandviwalla stated that a consensus was yet to be reached between the PPP and the PML-N on the proposed legislation.
“When we tell them that we will oppose [these bills]They postpone it,” joked the PPP senator.
“If they are creating this situation where we have to oppose their bills, the government’s bills, what’s the point?
“It was a question of principle. Negotiations were still ongoing […] so let them be finalized but you present [the bills] on your own.”
