ISLAMABAD, AUG 24: In a key development in the political arena, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have reached a consensus on cooperation in the National Assembly and the Senate, The News reported on Saturday.
The inter-party progress came after Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan-led PTI delegation which also included Asad Qaisar, Shibli Faraz, Raoof Hasan and Akunzada Hussain Yousufzai met JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman at his residence.
Both the parties, who have traditionally been arch-rivals, have held multiple interactions since the February 8 polls owing to their mutual concerns regarding alleged election result manipulation and irregularities in the polls.
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Last month, PTI leader and former NA speaker Asad Qaiser met the JUI-F chief, wherein the two sides formally agreed to hold talks at the committee level with regards to the prospects of cooperation on the political front.
Sources told Geo News that the PTI also formed a five-member negotiation team for talks with Maulana’s party with Chairman Gohar, Qaiser, Hasan, Faraz and NA Opposition Leader Omar Ayub included in the panel.
Meanwhile, the JUI-F’s team comprised Kamran Murtaza Maulana Lutfur Rehman, Mufti Fazal Ghafoor, Aslam Ghauri and Maulana Amjad.
In the same month, Fazl had also claimed that the Imran Khan-founded party had agreed to step down from the assemblies and dissolve the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) legislature to force the government into elections — however, the claim was categorically refuted by PTI Chairman Gohar.
Speaking to the media after the meeting, PTI spokesperson Hasan said that it was a meeting between leadership of two parties adding that negotiating teams of two sides would continue to meet and move forward in the National Assembly and the Senate with mutual consultation.
“It was our first meeting at the committee level and we will continue to meet in future to enhance cooperation,” he said.
Meanwhile, JUI-F’s Maulana Ziaur Rehman noted that the parties’ committees will decide matters regarding legislative issues in the National Assembly and the Senate.
Rehman further said that a two-member committee comprising Senators Shibli Faraz and Kamran Murtaza will deal with legislative matters in the upper house.
The PTI and JUI-F’s decision to cooperate comes against the backdrop of the former’s “resurrection” in the assemblies following the Supreme Court’s July 12 verdict where the apex court declared the party eligible for reserved seats.
Although, ambiguity prevails regarding the PTI’s parliamentary future owing to the Election (Amendment) Bill 2024, which provisions retrospective effect and addresses the issue of reserved seats that seemingly disfavours the Khan-founded party, the cooperation between the two opposition parties might irk Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led coalition government which has lost its two-thirds majority in the lower house since the SC verdict last month.
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