Bilawal calls upon Opposition to unite, says Imran Khan benefiting from lack of unity

Stating that Prime Minister Imran Khan is benefitting from lack of unity among the Opposition, Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday appealed to the Opposition parties to set aside minor issues and focus on opposing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

While addressing a press conference in Khairpur, Bilawal said it had been the "good luck" of the government and Imran Khan that the opposition didn't move a motion of no-confidence against him after the government's defeat in the election for the Islamabad Senate seat, Pakist newspaper Dawn reported.

During the election of the Senate chairman last month, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) Sadiq Sanjr received 48 votes while his opponent and former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gil received 42 votes as his seven votes were rejected.

"We should keep our small and minor issues aside [and] should focus on opposing the government. This was the PPP's effort since the first day and I believe the entire opposition's focus should be on this puppet government," Bilawal said.

"Sadly, from the Senate elections up until now, only the PPP has been opposing the government and the rest of our friends in the opposition, they are doing opposition with the opposition (PPP)," said Bilawal, adding that only Prime Minister Imran Khan was benefitting from this lack of unity among the opposition and it was the opposition's failure that it couldn't expose Imran Khan's effort to snatch the independence of the state bank," he said.

This comes after an alliance of Pakistan opposition parties, also known as the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), has suffered a major split, just six months after it was founded to fight the "selected" government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The opposition alliance, headed by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) leader, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has decided to part ways with Pakistan's Peoples Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP) and form a new alliance of five opposition parties having 27 members in the Senate, Dawn reported.

These five parties are PML-N, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), National Party (NP), and Balochistan National Party (BNP-Mengal). The PDM also decided to serve notices to the PPP and the ANP for not attending the alliance meeting on Friday and violating its decision.

The alliance was founded in September 2020.

In the span of six months, the alliance had orgsed over 15 public gatherings, demanding the resignations of Prime Minister Khan.

The decision to part ways was taken at a meeting of senators of five opposition parties, minus the PPP and the ANP, according to a press release by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

( With inputs from ANI )