Pakistan: PPP will no longer be ‘friendly opposition’ in Parliament

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Main opposition party in parliament Pakistan Peoples Party has announced to end its role of “friendly opposition” in the Parliament.

“We would now act as the opposition and not as the friendly opposition that we did in Parliament in order to save parliamentary democracy,” Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah told Dawn over telephone from his hometown of Sukkur.

Shah castigated the government for invoking Article 245 of the Constitution which the latter has employed to deploy the army in the federal capital and termed it “a political blunder” by the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

“Neither the Parliament, nor the political parties were taken into confidence over a decision as important as this,” Shah said.

“An in camera joint session of the Parliament should have been called before invoking this article,” Shah remarked. He said the prevailing political situation had led the government to behave in a confused manner, adding that it had also closed dialogue with other political forces, a situation which Shah said was resulting in chaos.

“The government should urgently restart dialogue with varying political forces otherwise I fear that the democratic system may become jeopardised,” Shah warned.