PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday announced that the party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) has called upon its members to resign from all positions of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).
Flanked by party leaders, Bilawal held a news conference to speak about the matters that came under discussion during the recently-held Central Executive Committee meeting of the party.
He said the CEC had come to the conclusion that resignations from the national and provincial assemblies should be “like an atom bomb”.
Bilawal said the PPP’s stance that the Opposition should not “abandon the Parliament and the Senate battleground” had been vindicated.
He said if the PPP had listened to other political parties in the Opposition and boycotted the Senate elections and by-elections, then it would have harmed democracy.
“We did not give the PTI government an open field to form a two-thirds majority in the Senate,” he said, adding that the government lost on its “own pitch” when the PDM candidate won from the Nowshera by-election.
“We will not undermine these gains that the PPP has achieved after giving many sacrifices,” he said. “When the PML-N was in power, we protected the Parliament then and we will protect the Parliament today.”
He said those who wanted to resign from the Parliament, should do so.
“But, no one should try to impose their will or their dictation on any other political party,” he said. “And the Pakistan Peoples Party will continue in its firm, consistent Opposition to the selected government that has been ongoing since day one and has not broken for a single day,” stressed the PPP chairperson.
“The Pakistan Peoples Party rejects the so-called show-cause notice,” he said. “Politics is done with equality and respect,” he added.
“The PPP demands an unconditional apology to the ANP and to the PPP for this obnoxious attitude,” he said.
Bilawal said the PPP stands by the ANP and would not abandon them under any circumstances. “There is no concept of show-cause notices in democratic alliances,” he said.
He recounted the PPP’s participation in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy and the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy.
“We condemn the politics of Opposition against members of the Opposition,” he said.
The PPP chairperson said his party’s doors were open for all other parties, adding that there should be a “working relationship” among them.
