June 14th 2024.
Islamabad: In an effort to ease the political tensions in the country, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has extended an invitation to his former ally, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, to join the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). According to a media report on Friday, Sharif visited Rehman at his residence to enquire about his well-being and discuss the current political situation.
During the meeting, the 72-year-old premier proposed the formation of a committee to address the prevailing political issues and urged Maulana Rehman to join the ruling coalition. A source in the PM Office revealed that Rehman was asked to join the alliance and play a role in the proposed committee, but he declined the offer, as stated by a JUI-F spokesperson.
The spokesperson further claimed that seeking power is not a part of their politics and that they had received a better offer before the current government was formed. It is worth mentioning that Maulana Rehman previously led an opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), during Imran Khan's government. However, after Khan's government was overthrown in a vote of no-confidence in April 2022, the PDM formed a new government at the Centre, with Shehbaz Sharif as the Prime Minister.
Recently, there have been apparent rifts within the ruling coalition, with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) accusing the PML-N of disregarding their inputs in the preparation of the annual budget. The PPP expressed their reservations in a parliamentary committee meeting chaired by party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Tuesday, just before the budget presentation in Parliament.
The PPP has criticized the PML-N for not taking their suggestions into account while preparing the budget and questioned whether the ruling government still values their support. This has raised concerns about the stability of the ruling coalition and the future of their alliance.
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