Opposition parties in Pak want PM's intervention to defuse political tension in Parliament

The opposition parties in Pakistan want Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's intervention to defuse the prevailing tense political situation in the Parliament following a scuffle between lawmakers from the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The opposition wants National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to seek Sharif's intervention on the current situation in the house and have indicated that they might boycott parliament proceedings if ministers continued their "assault" on them, reports the Dawn.

Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah and Vice Chairman of the PTI Shah Mehmood Qureshi conveyed this to speaker of National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq during separate telephonic conversations with him.

Qureshi told that he had requested the speaker to ask the Prime Minister if the ministers were issuing threatening statements as part of the ruling party's policy or it was their individual act.

He said the opposition could consider the option of staying away from the assembly if the ministers were doing it under a plan, adding that it would at least help maintain the decorum of the parliament.

Qureshi said a joint meeting has been called by the opposition parties on Monday to devise future strategy before beginning of the National Assembly session.

He said it would be useless to attend the assembly session if the Speaker could not prevent the ministers from spoiling the environment

The leader said that the opposition parties would decide in the meeting whether to participate in the proceedings without seeking any guarantee or they should stay away.

Qureshi said that he has been given assurance by the speaker about taking the issue of the house with the prime minister.

The Speaker has said that no proceeding will be conducted in the house unless a decision by the parliamentary leaders is made on the scuffle that happened in the house.