Critics say opposition leader’s appointment may be timed to pre-empt PTI’s February 8 show
ISLAMABAD:
After months of drifting, when the National Assembly finally regained a formal opposition vote last Friday with the announcement of Mahmood Khan Achakzai as Leader of the Opposition, the move ended a deadlock that had paralyzed the lower house for over five months.
However, the development also immediately changed the political conversation: was this merely procedural closure, or the first signal of a broader recalibration aimed at pulling opposition politics back from the streets and into parliament?
Achakzai’s appointment – made after the nomination of jailed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan – raised an inevitable question of timing and intent.
What, critics asked, finally prompted National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to act now that a similar request by the PTI in October had been rejected? The proximity of the decision to the PTI’s planned protest on February 8 only heightened the speculation.
Rumors soon followed that three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had quietly intervened and pushed the government to approve the appointment. However, the NA speaker publicly rejected such claims saying that Nawaz Sharif had given him full authority to take decisions and insisted that Achakzai’s appointment was his own call.
Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar nevertheless hinted at a broader internal process, telling a private news channel that party decisions are made through consultation and that Nawaz Sharif has final authority.
While the debate over agency and timing continues, political sources told The Express Pakinomist that the appointment of opposition leaders in both the National Assembly and the Senate was part of a wider understanding between the government and opposition parties aimed at easing institutional paralysis.
If Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz insiders are to be believed, Achakzai’s elevation is intended to draw the PTI away from street agitation and back into parliamentary politics.
A senior PML-N leader confirmed that there was a wider understanding that Achakzai would help bring the PTI back into the parliamentary fold, adding that the government would welcome a more active and structured opposition in parliament.
The timing of the notification is widely seen as significant, coming just weeks before the PTI’s planned protest on February 8. However, the government hopes that Achakzai – who has also been mandated by Imran Khan to lead the opposition – will persuade the PTI to step back from street politics.
A senior PML-N leader and close confidant of Nawaz Sharif confirmed this assessment.
Senator Pervaiz Rasheed told The Express Pakinomist that a positive outcome of the appointment of a Leader of the Opposition was that the parliamentary deadlock would now end.
He said that the second cog of the parliamentary system had finally been installed in the form of the Leader of the Opposition, enabling Parliament to function smoothly. According to him, both the ethical requirements and constitutional imperatives of Parliament were now fulfilled, a development which he said deserved appreciation.
Rasheed further said that as Leader of Opposition, Mahmood Khan Achakzai’s responsibility would be to curb PTI’s addiction to agitation, street protests and marches to D-Chowk, and to bring the party back to Parliament.
He said Achakzai would bring them into the parliamentary fold and work to train and reform their political culture. Rasheed described Achakzai as a lifelong democrat and said that in his new role he would explain to the opposition that politics and democracy work through political parties and that political parties must acknowledge and recognize each other.
He added that Achakzai would teach them to stay away from agitation-driven politics and not to wait for a “judge’s finger”.
Rasheed also said he agreed with the Prime Minister’s stance on dialogue and stressed that political parties must engage in discussion. With the country facing terrorism and difficult economic decisions ahead, he said the first priority should be to bring politics back to parliament.
Will this bring PTI back from the streets?
TTAP spokesman Akhunzada Hussain Yousafzai acknowledged that Achakzai’s appointment could help restore normal parliamentary functioning, but warned that the move alone was unlikely to pull PTI off the streets.
Meaningful engagement, he said, would require the government to acknowledge past actions against the PTI and recognize what the party sees as denial of its democratic rights. The PTI, he stressed, would not give up protest politics based solely on an appointment.
Addressing allegations by Senator Kamran Murtaza about direct contact between Nawaz Sharif and Achakzai, Yousafzai dismissed the suggestion as false and attributed it to political rivalry between the two in Balochistan. He said there had been no contact between the former prime minister and Achakzai since the 2024 elections.
While ruling out direct Nawaz Sharif-Achakzai engagement, Yousafzai confirmed that Rana Sanaullah, a close aide to Nawaz Sharif, had reached out to Achakzai after the appointment to congratulate him and renew an offer of dialogue – an outreach effort that he suggested probably carried Nawaz Sharif’s approval.
However, he stressed that Imran Khan remained the central figure in PTI’s decision-making. “Until he is aware of it, we cannot make contact,” he said, adding that the party was proceeding cautiously and had repeatedly stressed that Achakzai and Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, who is nominated to be the leader of the opposition in the Senate, should meet to move forward.
