Raza Rabbani not pleased with PPP’s move to seek BAP support for Gillani’s Senate seat

• Raza Rabbani says the support of BAP Dilawar group in the Senate is not good for the ideological foundations of the PPP.
• Advises the Opposition to keep its unity intact. 
• JUI-F, PML-N also refuse to accept Gillani as Senate's Leader of Opposition.

ISLAMABAD: The PPP is now facing internal pressure over its move to seek support from the senators of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) for Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani’s Senate seat as two senior leaders, including former Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani have publicly opposed the development.

Senator Gillani was nominated by the PPP for the prized slot of Senate Opposition leader last week with the support of 30 senators, including four of BAP, angering Opposition parties for taking a unilateral decision.

Senator Rabbani, in a response to The News, said on Wednesday that the party should not have taken the support of BAP and Dilawar Khan group in the Senate.

Read more: PML-N's Abbasi says confidence in PPP shaken after party's move to get Gillani Senate seat

“Though the slot of the opposition leader in the Senate was right of the PPP being a largest single party at the opposition benches, it should not taken the support of the BAP Senators Dilawar group for the slot of opposition leader in the Senate,” he said while answering a query of The News on Wednesday.

Rabbani said the support of the BAP Dilawar group in the Senate is not good for the ideological foundations of the PPP.

He said the rules of the Senate are clear that the slot goes to the single largest party at the opposition benches.

He advised the opposition to keep its unity intact for the broader object of the supremacy of the constitution and Parliament and objectives of supremacy of the constitution could not be achieved without unity in the ranks of the opposition.

“It's time to stand united to achieve the objectives,” he said.

Read more: Maryam Nawaz lashes out at PPP, says it should follow Imran Khan if it wants to be 'selected'

Earlier, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar had also said that the party should not have to take the support of BAP.

“In my view getting the votes from government-allied party harmed the party's ideological foundations,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

Khokhar said the PDM parties had a weak stance on tendering resignations, while the PPP had on the issue of opposition leader.

“The parties of the PDM were putting unnecessary pressure on the issue of resignation, but we should not have secured the votes from the BAP,” he said.

Opposition parties refuse to accept Gillani as Senate's Leader of Opposition

Meanwhile, PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and the JUI-F's Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri have unanimously decided not to accept PPP's Yousaf Raza Gillani as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

The decision came during a Wednesday meeting to discuss the situation following Gillani's selection as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

Abbasi — the secretary-general of the Opposition's anti-government coalition under the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) banner — had called on Maulana Haideri, his counterpart in the JUI-F, and inquired about the latter's party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Both agreed that all Opposition parties in the PDM were disappointed with the PPP's attitude.

The senior PML-N leader said a consultation on the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate would soon be held with other parties in the PDM.

The JUI-F leader opined that the PPP had "disappointed everyone" by seeking the Balochistan Awami Party's (BAP) support on the issue of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate.

During the meeting, the two leaders agreed that the parties in the PDM would have to come up with a strategy to bring in their own Leader of the Opposition, for which a future summit should be convened.