PML-N, PPP decide against boycott of Parliament: sources

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Sunday decided that they would become part of Parliament and not opt for a boycott, sources told to media.

“Despite their reservations, both the PML-N and PPP have decided that their elected candidates will take the parliamentary oath,” the sources said.

The two parties have agreed to lodge protest against alleged rigging in the 2018 General Election in the Parliament, sources added.

Advisory committees of both the parties will meet each other and leaders of other political parties today in this regard and make a formal announcement, they further said.

A day earlier, former leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah said he had apprised PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif that the PPP does not want to boycott Parliament.

PPP's advisory committee will comprise Shah, Naveed Qamar, Yousuf Raza Gilani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Sherry Rehman and Qamar Zaman Kaira.

While the PML-N committee will include former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Saad Rafique and former National Assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.

“The committees of PML-N and PPP will also meet Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leadership,” Shah said.

The PPP leader continued, “We will also meet Awami National Party (ANP) leader Asfandyar Wali, Pakh­tun­khwa Milli Awami Party's (PkMAP) Mehmood Achakzai and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) member Farooq Sattar.”

Earlier, sources had said that the senior leadership of PML-N will meet today to discuss the oath-taking issue.

The suggestion to boycott parliament by several parties, which had rejected the poll results, came up during the multiparty conference on Friday evening.

While speaking to the media after the All Parties Conference on Friday, MMA President Maulana Fazlur-Rehman had announced that the opposition parties have severe reservations over July 25 poll results.

“Opposition parties have decided that their parliamentarians will not take their oaths till elections are held again,” the MMA president had said.

However, Shehbaz had remarked that he could not announce the decision pertaining to oath-taking till he held talks with party leadership.

Sources had further said that the decision pertaining to the issue will be made after consultation with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is currently imprisoned at Adiala Jail.