Fazl urges PPP, ANP to reconsider PDM resignations

• PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman says breakaway parties should accept if their mistakes if they are at fault.
• He says accepting one's mistakes and apologising are the tenets of democracy.
• PDM holds meeting without PPP, ANP leaders

Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday urged the PPP and the ANP to reconsider their decisions to resign from all posts of the alliance and leave it. 

On April 12, the PPP had announced that the party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) had called upon its members to resign from all positions of the PDM, while leaders of the ANP had withdrawn from the alliance after show-cause notices were issued to the party to explain their actions during the recently held Senate polls.

Fazl, addressing a press conference flanked by PDM leaders, said: "I urge them to reconsider the situation, and if they have committed a mistake, they should accept it [...] as these are the tenets of democracy."

Turning his guns towards the government, the PDM chief criticised the centre for not purchasing enough coronavirus vaccines.

"For a population the size of Pakistan, how effective will 1 million doses of the vaccines be?" he asked.

The PDM chief said keeping the prevalent situation in mind, it was crucial to oust the incumbent government and hold free and fair elections. Fazl added some things had slowed down due to the holy month of Ramadan, but the PDM was still intact.

The presser came after the Opposition alliance met today to deliberate over its anti-government strategy, but the PPP and ANP were not invited to the steering committee meeting.

The had PDM discussed the anti-government movement, long march and resignations from the assemblies planned after Eidul Fitr.

According to The News, the PDM had decided in principle that it would not invite the parties to the meeting of leaders of its component parties after they announced to quit the alliance following show-cause notices.

The PDM had served notices to PPP and ANP after they unilaterally got Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani elected Opposition leader in the Senate, violating a consensus decision of the PDM.

Sources privy to the recent contacts among former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman and PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif said these leaders have developed a consensus that the PPP and ANP leadership will not be invited to the next meeting of leaders of component parties.

They said both Nawaz and Fazl are of the view that if the PPP and ANP gave appropriate replies to the clarification sought by PDM, they could again become its part but these parties acted against their expectations.

The sources said Nawaz and Fazl now adopted a strict stance against PPP and ANP and both of them also informed Shahbaz about it during their separate telephonic conversations with him.

Though Shahbaz holds a somewhat different position regarding PPP and ANP, he will not take any position contrary to the views of Nawaz, the sources said.