PPP decides to resign from PDM's steering committee

• PPP has decided to resign from PDM's steering committee on Monday.
  
• The development comes after the 11-party alliance issued a show cause notice to two major opposition parties – PPP and ANP.
  
• PPP leaders Raja Pervez Ashraf, Sherry Rehman, and Qamar Zaman Kaira will resign from the PDM steering committee today.
  

Amid intensifying jarring between Opposition parties, the PPP has decided to resign from the anti-government Pakistan Democratic Movement's (PDM) steering committee on Monday.

The development comes after the 10-party alliance issued a show-cause notice to two major Opposition parties – PPP and ANP – over alleged violation of the PDM’s principles last week.

Read more: All eyes on PPP as party holds CEC meeting today to discuss PDM show-cause notice

According to sources, PPP leaders Raja Pervez Ashraf, Sherry Rehman, and Qamar Zaman Kaira will resign from the PDM steering committee today.

PPP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) is of the view that PDM is a political alliance and no party involved in the movement is subordinate to anyone.

Therefore, such an attempt has made irreparable damage to the Opposition alliance.

PPP sources said that if the PDM is to be kept active, an apology should be made to both the parties on the receiving end of the show-cause notices.

Read more: PDM serves show cause notices to PPP, ANP

The PDM had issued show-cause notices to the PPP and the ANP for seeking votes from the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) for the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, on which the ANP announced its withdrawal from the alliance. 

On the other hand, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reportedly ripped apart the show cause notice of PDM in the party's CEC meeting, expressing his displeasure and indignation over PDM’s move.

The Senate dispute

The PDM had decided last month that the PPP will get the slot of chairman Senate while the deputy chairman will go to JUI-F and the PML-N will get the office of the leader of the Opposition.

The PPP and JUI-F candidates for the two slots couldn’t succeed in the polls, as the presiding officer discarded seven votes of the PPP candidate Senator Yusuf Raza Gilani.

Subsequently, the PPP backed out of consensus understanding which had been reached through a consensus and opted to get the slot of the Opposition leader by roping in some members of the BAP party, which is part of the government.

The ANP stood by the PPP in Gillani's nomination.