Political parties aligned against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have finalised names for their candidates for the posts of prime minister, speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly, a senior member of the alliance confirmed Friday.
The alliance comprises Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Muttahida Majlis-s-Amal (MMA), Awami National Party (ANP) and others.
The alliance held another meeting on Friday to decide the names for the key posts. MMA’s Liaquat Baloch said the opposition would bring forth its candidates on the day of election for prime minister, speaker and deputy speaker of the National Assembly.
He said during Friday’s meeting, the joint action committee of allied parties held consultation on strategy to protest against alleged rigging in general elections. He said they would not announce names of their candidates as per a strategy.
A private TV channel reported that during the meeting the PPP opposed staging a protest on the day of election for the leader of the House. The PPP took the stance that a protest on the day of election for leader of the House would be ineffective. It suggested the opposition to stage a full-fledged protest on the very next day.
The allied parties on Thursday had decided to put up a fight against the PTI in a bid to form the federal government and field their own consensus candidates for top slots in the National Assembly.
Published in Daily Times, August 4th 2018.
