The major opposition parties in Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) are mulling to go for en masse resignations from the national assembly to oust Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
The final decision in this regard would be taken in the PDM leaders’ meeting scheduled on December 8.
The 11-party-led coalition wants to pressurize the government as it largely believes that going for mass resignations from the assembly is the ‘Achilles heel’ and would draw them closed to the goal of ousting the PTI government from power.
Seat distribution in National Assembly
According to the current distribution of seats in NA, PTI has some 156 seats.
The major parties in opposition including Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have 83 and 55 seats respectively. Muthaida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) is occupying a total of 15 seats.
This together makes a total of 153 seats in the legislative assembly by major opposition parties in the coalition.
What if PDM parties resign?
The situation for the government would turn unpleasant if the PDM takes this course.
The organizations of elections on around 150 seats would be almost like holding a mini-election.
Therefore, the government will possibly be nudged and re-election in the country may take place without the incumbent government completing its term.
What are obstructions?
The extreme path of PDM en masse resignations is mulling to take may not be easy for the opposition parties as well.
Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam- Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, who is heading PDM, pushing the other two major opposition parties, PPP and PML-N, to their limits as there is not much at stake for him.
However, PPP seems a bit reluctant about going ‘extreme’. If the government gets dissolved, PPP will lose power in Sindh too.
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In this regard, PML-N leader Muhammad Zubair told News360 that PDM has not finalized the decision so far. He added that en-masse resignations from the assembly is one of the ‘options’.
Zubair said that resignations would exert more pressure on the PTI government as holding by-elections on such a massive scale would be an uphill task.