PPP 'shies away' from supporting PML-N govt on PTI ban move

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) seems to have won the confidence of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as the latter has expressed full support for the ruling party's review petition against the Supreme Court's reserved seats ruling, according to sources.

However, with regard to the PML-N's plan to ban the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and invoke Article 6 of the Constitution against the opposition party leaders, the legal team of the Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari-led party showed its concerns and proposed to further discuss the issue.

The development took place as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held consultations at the President's House on Friday with allied parties over issues including the apex court's 8-5 verdict on reserved seats, sources said, adding that the ruling party took the allies into confidence over its plan to ban the PTI that invited criticism from political leaders belonging to both opposition and ruling parties. 

Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Consultant on Legal Affairs in the President Secretariat Irfan Qadir, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema attended the meeting on behalf of the PML-N. From PPP's side, President Asif Ali Zardari, Farook H Naek, Sherry Rehman and Nayyar Bokhari participated in the talks.

During the meeting, the PML-N's key ally extended complete support to the review petition in the apex court over its short order in the reserved seats case announced on July 12, the sources in the PPP said. "However, the party held back from the issue of banning the PTI."

The two main political allies have agreed to further discuss the issue (of imposing the ban on the PTI) on the party level first and then produce the matter before parliament later on, the sources added.

Afterwards, the issue will be presented before the federal cabinet, they said.

The PML-N's legal team took the PPP leaders into confidence over its decisions regarding the Imran Khan-founded party during today's meeting that lasted for one-and-a-half hours.

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar and Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan briefed the meeting about the legalities of the government's plan to ban the PTI, the insiders further said.

However, they said, members of the PPP's legal team voiced their concerns regarding the future impacts of these decisions.

But, the two parties agreed to make all decisions about the PTI with consensus, the sources said, adding that the coalition partners also agreed to continue negotiations in the future as well.

The development comes a week after the top court ruled that the PTI was eligible for the allocation of reserved seats for women and minorities.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the SC's full bench announced the 8-5 majority verdict, nullifying the Peshawar High Court's (PHC) order wherein it had upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision denying the reserved seats to the SIC.

Following the verdict, the PML-N on Monday filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its verdict. It nominated 11 respondents in the plea including the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) and its chairman Hamid Raza, praying the court to suspend its ruling dated July 12, 2024, on the reserved seats.

The review petition asked a number of questions including whether the SIC should be granted the reserved seats.

It questioned if reserved seats could be granted to a political party that had not submitted a party list within the prescribed time, whether a political party can be given reserved seats whose candidates have not even filed nomination papers within the time provided by the election watchdog and if independents could even join a political party which did not win a single general seat in parliament.

The plea also raised the question if the seats could be left vacant or have to be distributed among the political parties contesting for the said seats.