ISLAMABAD: The numerical strength of the opposition parties in the 342-member National Assembly will cross the 100-mark with the inclusion of the reserved women and minority seats.
The tally will swell by at least a dozen members if Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulemae Islam (JUI) decides to sit on the opposition benches. For the time being, it is tilted towards PML-N, to get a suitable share in the federal and Baluchistan governments.
It is not yet known if the three JUI members will be part of the opposition or treasury benches.
The JUI is an active member of the next ruling coalition in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). If it opts to join hands with PTI at the federal level, the numbers of the opposition parties will go up. By having some 40 plus MPs, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will become the single largest bloc in the opposition.
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) will add 20 plus seats, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and Awami National Party (ANP) will contribute two members each.
The PTI and one member each of the Awami Muslim League and Aftab Sherpao’s Qaumi Watan Party will make up around 40 members of their opposition group.
The 12 Federally Administered Tribal Areas MPs are divided this time, with some having sworn loyalty to PML-N. Others may like to be counted as opposition members.
Other parliamentary groups, including the PML-Functional, Pukhtunkhwa Awami Milli Party, National Peoples Party (since merged in the PML-N) and one-seat parties like Baluchistan National Party, PML-Zia, National Party, etc., will side with the PML-N.
There is hardly any doubt now that the next leader of opposition will be from the PPP, which surpasses the PTI and its allies if the strength of its partners like the MQM is added.
Although the combined opposition force makes a formidable power, it is split for obvious reasons. The main reason for disunity is PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s firm stand, taken before the May 11 general election and during the poll campaign, never to break bread with the PPP and its allies on one hand and the PML-N on the other because they, in his words, are looters and plunderers, who have brought Pakistan to the present sorry state.
The high tension caused between the PTI and MQM by recent events dampens prospects of any cooperation in the two opposition blocs. But there is possibility that they may collaborate on a minimum mutually agreed agenda as issues will crop up, forcing a unified stance, or case to case basis when the National Assembly will hold its sessions as there are no permanent political friends and foes.
Top PTI leaders have repeatedly declared that their parliamentary group would work and prove to be the real opposition and not a friendly force, overshadowing the PPP and its allies. Of the 60 reserved seats for women, 35 will be elected by the MNAs, who have returned from Punjab; 14 would be picked up by MPs belonging to Sindh; eight will be chosen by members from the KPK and three from Baluchistan.
Parliamentary parties will get the share from these seats in proportion to the number of their MPs. In addition, there will be 10 minority seats.
While the PPP will not get any woman seat from Punjab, KPK and Baluchistan, it will secure most seats from Sindh. The PML-N will clinch most seats from Punjab, and a couple each from KPK, Sindh and Baluchistan.
The PTI will bag a couple of women’s seats from Punjab, mostly from the KPK and none from Sindh and Baluchistan. The MQM will get a good number of seats from Sindh, while PML-Functional is expected to get a couple of seats from there. The JUI will bag a couple of seats from KPK and Baluchistan. The PML-Q and ANP will get no woman seat from any province.
Internews
