LAHORE: PPP-P Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called on Central VP PML-N/Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Hamza Shahbaz Sharif at his Model Town residence here Sunday to discuss the issue of Yousuf Raza Gilani’s election as Senate Chairman and in-house changes in the Punjab Assembly.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was accompanied by Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Chaudhry Manzoor and Hassan Murtaza. Following the rendezvous Bilawal talked to journalists at a Presser and said that he was positive that PDM’s candidate Yousuf Raza Gilani would beat the PTI-led coalition govt.’s sitting Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. It may be recalled that Hamza Shahbaz has been released on bail after ten months in custody. An investigation is in progress against him apropos money laundering.
Bilawal said they had learnt lessons from the past and would make sure that their voters did not defect the way they did back in 2019 when a no-confidence motion was moved to deseat Senate’s current Chairman Sadiq Sangrani: “We have learnt quite a bit from the last chairman election; if we hadn’t, we would have lost the National Assembly secret ballot election. We won there and it is our full effort that we challenge together so the win is of the PDM.”
Commenting on the vote of confidence held in the NA on Saturday 6th of March, Bilawal pointed towards the controversy engulfing the whole episode maintaining that there weren’t enough people present for the 178 votes obtained: “Imran Khan was neither voluntarily voted as the prime minister by the Members of the Assembly, nor was he voluntarily voted for in this vote of confidence…He ran a race alone and declared himself the winner…But even this was rigged…This allegation raised by a member of the opposition present in the Assembly, that the number of votes announced do not match the number of people in attendance, must be investigated”.
Hamza Shahbaz Sharif maintained that the objectives of the PDM weren’t limited to a long march or a no-confidence motion in the short term. According to him they were struggling to correct the “destruction caused in this country in these three years”. He maintained that the PML-N and PPP had learned a lot from the Charter of Democracy. PDM lawmakers retained their majority and on 12th day of March are expected to vote for the Chairman and Deputy Chairman. The elections for the Senate’s top slots would be conducted via secret ballots.
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