ISLAMABAD- The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has started contacting with other political parties over the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance (PPO).
Senator Babar Ghauri had a telephonic contact with Aitzaz Ahsen of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Haji Adeel of Awami National Party (ANP) and Kamil Ali Agha (PML-Q) over the matter. According to reports, MQM, PPP, ANP and PML-Q agreed to oppose the bill. Senator Babar Ghauri termed the bill illegal, unethical and inhuman. He stated that they will strongly oppose the bill in the upper house of the parliament. The Protection of Pakistan Ordinance, 2013, was approved by President Mamnoon Hussain on October 20, 2013 and the National Assembly on April 7, 2014. It now requires Senate approval by April 20, 2014 or it will expire.
Earlier, MQM chief, Altaf Hussain, also opposed it as a ‘draconian law’. “MQM’s protest against this harsh law will continue until it is withdrawn,” Hussain said in a statement issued from London. He urged the political and religious parties to convene an urgent roundtable against this law. PPP Patron-in-Chief, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said in his message on the Twitter that “if PPO passes in its current form one day PM Nawaz Sharif will be arrested using it. I hope the senate does the right thing and does not let it pass.”