ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that the Democratic Movement’s (PDM) unity in the four provinces is good news for the nation as the alliance decided to contest the Senate elections according to a mutually agreed plan of action.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad along with PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday, the PDM chief said, “We are not buying any votes, all parties have the political right to seek votes for their candidates from other political parties.”
He said the different parties of the PDM did not break each other’s votes as they (the government) thought. “We are united for the Senate elections and will achieve successful results, ” he added.
Fazal said the MQM-P would have a political advantage in securing technocrat and women’s seats in Sindh if they supported the PPP.
The JUI-F chief clarified that the PDM was a movement and not an electoral alliance even though they personally try not to break away from each others’ votes and try to contest the elections together.
On this occasion, Bilawal said PDM is prepared for both open and secret balloting in the upcoming Senate polls.
The PPP chairman said that in the upcoming Senate polls, the opposition alliance wanted to show that even members of parliament are not with the government but with the PDM, and expressed hope that the opposition’s candidates would be elected with “good and surprising results”.
The PDM hoped to establish a national government, which would represent the people and solve their problems while institutions working within their sphere, and the parliament took decisions about the country’s future and fate, insisted Bilawal.
In response to a question regarding an alliance with MQM-Pakistan, Bilawal said that he hoped the MQM-P will be with us. He pointed out that MQM-P — an ally of the PTI government — had been elected from Karachi which had been “abandoned” by the federal government.
Bilawal admitted that the PDM had been in contact with MQM-P as well as other members of the treasury benches, adding that they had a free vote and there was no limitation on government MNAs or allies to support only the government in the Senate elections.
