Fazl to make decision over PPP's resignation from PDM: Maryam

• PML-N's Maryam Nawaz says decisions related to the next steps after the PPP responded to the show-cause notice will be taken by PDM chief Fazlur Rehman.
• Adds that the move to issue a show-cause notice to the PPP was taken unanimously by the PDM and not by any single party.
• Notes how the Daska victory of the PML-N — which "competed with the state machinery" — was a prelude to "a big change".

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LAHORE: PML-N's vice-president Maryam Nawaz said Monday it is up to Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), to make a decision using his wisdom over the PPP's reaction to a show-cause notice issued by the Opposition's anti-government coalition.

Speaking to the media here in Lahore, Maryam Nawaz clarified that the decision to issue a show-cause notice to the PPP was taken unanimously by the PDM and not by any single party.

Maryam Nawaz said the parties in the PDM were united and committed to their cause. The struggle of the Opposition's anti-government coalition was to correct the direction Pakistan was moving in, she added.

The PML-N leader further underscored that while the move to send a show-cause notice to the PPP was unanimous, the decision on what to do now that the Sindh-based party had responded was left to the wisdom and leadership of Fazlur Rehman.

"We will sit in the PDM [meeting] and decide what to do" about it, she said.

Earlier today, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari held a news conference to announce that his party's Central Executive Committee (CEC) called upon its members to resign from all positions of the PDM.

Flanked by party leaders, Bilawal said the CEC concluded that resignations from the national and provincial assemblies should be "like an atom bomb".

The PPP's stance that the Opposition should not "abandon the Parliament and the Senate battleground" had been vindicated and that if it had listened to the other political parties in boycotting the Senate elections and by-polls, it would have harmed democracy.

"The Pakistan Peoples Party rejects the so-called show-cause notice," he said. "Politics is done with equality and respect. The PPP demands an unconditional apology to the ANP and to the PPP for this obnoxious attitude," he said.

"We condemn the politics of Opposition against members of the Opposition," he said, adding that his party's doors were open for all other parties and that there should be a "working relationship" among them.

Daska win prelude to a 'big change'

Speaking about PML-N candidate Nosheen Iftikhar's victory in the NA-75 Daska by-polls, Maryam said that her party competed with the state machinery, adding that the victory in the Daska by-election was a prelude to "a big change". 

The PTI regime "was unable to win despite rigging in February" and attempts were made to suppress and eliminate the PML-N, she noted.

The former first daughter remarked that the person who was told his politics had come to an end — party supremo and former premier Nawaz Sharif — defeated the ruling PTI despite being in London.

"They went to the Supreme Court to asking to be saved from a defeat at the hands of the public and when they came to the battlefield, the votes the people forced them to scarper," she stated.

"The day their government goes, they won't be able to campaign anymore."

Maryam Nawaz mentioned how the PML-N continued standing strong in the face of the PTI regime despite five-year-long efforts to break her party while representatives of the government were looking for sanctuaries.

A 'lesson to learn' from Jahangir Tareen

Referring to PTI bigwig and Prime Minister Imran Khan's formerly close aide, Jahangir Khan Tareen, she said she did not wish to say anything about his affairs but emphasised that there was a lesson to learn from what transpired.

"They [the PTI] were dependent on Tareen … using his planes so was he not [part of the] sugar mafia at that time?" she asked.