Government, opposition choose political battlefields

ISLAMABAD: The government and the opposition have drawn battle lines and chosen political battlefields in the parliament and streets respectively to score points against each other.

The government has opted to attack the opposition from the parliament on Friday while the opposition has opted for the streets to flex its political muscles by staging its first anti-government protest rally in Gujranwala on the same day (October 16).

The first public rally of the opposition parties' alliance, Pakistan Democratic Alliance, will be addressed by Maulana Fazalur Rehman, Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Maryam Nawaz Sharif and other leaders of the PDA in Gujranwala, kicking off the anti-government movement. Though the government has announced that it would not create any hurdles in the public rally, the opposition has accused the government of undertaking massive arrests of their political workers in Punjab.

President Dr Arif Alvi has summoned both the houses of the parliament on Friday. The Senate session would meet in the morning while the National Assembly would meet in the evening. But due to the PDA's rally in the evening, in all likelihood, the majority of the opposition legislators will stay away from the session. Former speaker National Assembly and senior leader of the PML-N Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that the opposition will boycott the proceedings of the National Assembly session and also the meetings of the parliamentary committees. However, he did not explain whether the PML-N will boycott the NA session completely or partially.

There was a lurking question in the minds of many political observers if the NA session summoned by the president will turn the opposition's requisitioned session of October 5, ineffective. The senior parliamentarians think it will not. They believe that the requisitioned session could be convened anytime.

Meanwhile, during the sessions of both the houses of parliament — Senate and National Assembly — the opposition’s anti-government protest movement and price hike will come under discussion along with the routine agenda.