QUETTA: The PTI-led government is pressuring parties with smaller representation to participate in Wednesday’s joint Parliament session, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said Tuesday.
The government has decided to convene the joint sitting as it continues its efforts to coax political allies — the PML-Q and the MQM-P — to rein in their support for the bills it plans to table on the electronic voting machines (EVMs), NAB, and other issues.
The PDM chief, addressing a press conference along with other Opposition leaders in Quetta, said: “The incompetent rulers are gearing up to extend their reign [by getting the bills passed in the Parliament]. The incumbent government is ruling on a ‘fake’ majority.”
“Struggling against such elements is ‘jihad,” he said, adding that Opposition parties’ lawmakers had received calls, asking them to not attend the joint session.
The PDM chief claimed that someone else was “pulling the strings of the government”, as it could not function on its own. “The country is running under oppression.”
Fazl advised the government that if it introduced legislation in the Parliament through coercion, it would hold no value. “I have a lot to say.”
Meeting with Bilawal
Speaking of his meeting with PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, Fazl said he had visited him as “his doors were not closed for anyone.”
The PPP chairman had last week met Fazl, with the meeting culminating in both leaders deciding to adopt a joint strategy against the PTI government in the Parliament.
