According to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will adopt new strategies if Pakistan Peoples Party does not resign from the assemblies.

The opposition leader made these remarks during a programme aired by Geo News last night. “PDM will move forward with the consultation of nine parties if the PPP does not resign,” Abbasi told anchor Shahzeb Khanzada.

The former premier added that the PML-N would have kept sitting in the assemblies if it wished to do politics only. He opined that the problem cannot be resolved with no-confidence motion, sending the government packing or fresh elections

Fazl’s telephonic conversation

The leader of Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (Fazl) and PDM Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Thursday separately phoned PPP leader and former president Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

DAWN reports that during the conversation Zardari told Maulana that PPP had decided to convene a meeting of its Central Executive Committee (CEC) in Rawalpindi on April 4 in which the party would again review the proposal of submitting resignations from the assemblies.

Earlier, a rift was witnessed in the 10-party opposition alliance (PDM) after PPP rejected the proposal of submitting en masse resignations from the assemblies as a result of which the PDM’s anti-government long march was postponed.

The resignation strategy had been planned to block the Senate elections and prevent the government from taking a majority in the upper house of the parliament and now after taking part in the Senate election, the issue of the resignations had already become redundant, Zardari told Maulana according to PPP sources as quoted by DAWN.

However, the JUI-F chief told the former president that the PDM would wait for a final reply from the PPP after its CEC meeting before making any decision.

Later, Maulana reportedly talked to PMl-N supremo Nawaz Sahrif, the self-exiled leader in London, and the two leaders discussed their future strategy if the PPP didn’t resign from assemblies.

According to the reports, both of the senior leaders decided that they should continue their struggle against the government in the case of any possibility leading to the PPP’s decision to leave the PDM.

According to media reports, the PDM will hold another meeting of the opposition parties soon after the PPP’s CEC meeting to discuss the future strategy.