PPP, JI agree to electoral cooperation in next elections: sources

LAHORE: Pakistan People Party (PPP) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) have agreed to cooperate with each other in the next elections after Bilawal Bhutto met Siraj ul Haq yesterday at Mansoora in Lahore, ARY NEWS reported quoting sources.

According to the details agreed by the two parties and shared by sources having knowledge of the entire discussion, the PPP wanted cooperation from Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh provinces.

“Besides the future cooperation, the JI also extended its support to PPP for opposition leader in Senate,” they said while quoting Siraj ul Haq who said during the meeting that since PPP has the majority seats, it has the right to have the slot of the opposition leader.

Siraj ul Haq, according to sources, further suggested the PDM against a long march saying that it would be of no use.

“We even suggested Imran Khan that sit-ins and long marches will yield no political benefit,” he said adding that it only helps the third force to intervene and inflicts damage to the democratic system.

He further said that if the PDM insists on carrying out a long march then they would visit them and request them to end it.

The sources further said that the two parties agreed to continue engagements with each other besides also reviewing the options of an alliance or seat adjustment in the future.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari after meeting with Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Sirajul Haq in Lahore on Monday mocked PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and said that “there is a family in Lahore who used to get selected in the past.

“If I wanted to comment on the PML-N’s vice-president, I would have asked my [party’s] vice-president to comment on it,” said Bilawal when a reporter asked the PPP chairman whether Maryam Nawaz took a dig at him by saying that “another selected was being prepared.”