ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed has warned of “Pindi’s role” and the General Headquarters (GHQ) if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement and do not respect each other’s mandates, The News reported on Wednesday.
“If the political parties do not take the initiative, the initiative will be forwarded to GHQ, who will make a decision with a cane in hand. Do we want to go through this humiliation again like before? “The establishment cannot act on its own unless it has allies, partners [in political parties],” the PML-N leader stated during a Senate session on Tuesday.
Calling on the PML-N supremo to take the initiative and allow the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to come forward and extend an olive branch to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Mushahid said: “And, if we don’t do that, then all roads will lead to Rawalpindi. Learn from the past mistakes, don’t repeat them.”
His comments came after the PML-N and the PPP reached an agreement to establish a coalition government in the “country’s best interest” at the Centre, as neither party won a simple majority in the February 8 general election.
“The Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz now have complete numbers, and we are in a position to form the next government,” PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said during a press conference in Islamabad with top leaders from both parties late Tuesday.
Bilawal also claimed that PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif would be the next prime minister, while PPP’s Asif Ali Zardari would be the joint contender for both parties’ presidential nomination.
The recent general elections saw the PTI-backed independent candidates—who have partnered with the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) to ensure it gets the required numbers through reserved seats in the assemblies — emerging as the largest group with 92 National Assembly (NA) seats followed by the PML-N (79) and the PPP (54).
Senator Mushahid, speaking on the motion on the circumstances stemming from the dubious results of the recent elections, stated that the situation had altered since the February 8 polls, and that a healing touch was required. He requested the release of all political prisoners, including Imran Khan and missing persons, whether in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or abroad.
Referring to the PTI’s sit-in in 2014, the PML-N senator claimed that it was likewise conducted at the request of the security establishment against a democratically elected government with no basis. This followed a quiet coup against the PML-N government on July 28, 2017, during which the elected premier was handcuffed.
He claimed that the elite staged a soft coup by leveraging the judiciary against Nawaz Sharif in 2017 which followed another against the Khan-led coalition government in 2022. He called for a general amnesty for the political prisoners and wondered if there could be talks with theTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists in Kabul, who had killed our people, then why dialogue could not be held with the political parties.
