PTI General Secretary Salman Akram Raja on Monday said the PPP and PML-N had no “real plan” to form an opposition in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly, calling them “two sides of the same coin”.
His comments come against a backdrop of political turmoil in AJK after 10 lawmakers, all elected on PTI tickets in the July 2021 general elections, announced on Sunday that they would join the PPP, which has been eyeing the prime minister’s post in the region. PPP and PML-N announced that they both agreed to move a no-confidence motion against the AJK government.
talking to Geographic news On the ‘Capital Talk’ programme, Raja said: “The PPP and the PM-LN are two sides of the same coin; they have an alliance and have no intention of forming a real opposition.”
“Right now everyone is taking their respective turn,” he added.
Responding to a question about rumors about a new opposition leader in the National Assembly and whether Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) will support the PTI, the PPP or the PML-N in the process, the PTI leader said: “Considering the past, I don’t think they will go with us in the end, and whether they form an alliance with the PPP or the PMLN, I can’t say anything about it, but We (PTI) really have no interest in that.”
“Our position is that these assemblies are just a façade. People no longer trust them, so they can continue doing whatever they want, and whoever becomes the next opposition makes no difference.”
Earlier in the day, Bilawal met JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman where the two discussed the country’s political landscape.
The PPP chairman was accompanied by PPP leaders Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Humayun Khan and Jamil Soomro, while JUI-F’s Mualana Asad Mahmood also attended the meeting.
As a result of recent developments, the PPP now has the support of 27 members, followed by the PML-N with nine, the PTI with five and two regional parties with one member each in the 53-member AJK assembly. The PTI renegade group led by AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq was reduced to ten members.
In a press conference with Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah, PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said today: “It has been decided that the current AJK government, of which both parties are a part, has become a base for creating a crisis instead of solving problems.”
“There is now consensus that a no-confidence motion will be tabled against him, in which the PPP and the PML-N will be together,” Kaira added.
