Bilawal Urges Opposition to Rejoin Committees
Bilawal urges opposition lawmakers to return to parliamentary committees, telling the National Assembly that the opposition cannot shape electoral reforms, security policy or economic decisions from outside the rooms where those decisions are prepared. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman made the appeal on Thursday, 29 October 2026, in a speech directed at Leader of the Opposition Mahmood Khan Achakzai. The demand follows Feature Pakistan’s coverage of Pakistan’s security dialogue with Tehran and the risks around the Strait of Hormuz.
Bilawal asked Achakzai to use the authority granted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan to direct opposition members back to the committees. He said the appeal applied in particular to the Electoral Reforms Committee, and he argued that a parliament without opposition members in its committees could not build the consensus that major reforms require.
PTI lawmakers quit the chairmanship of several National Assembly standing committees in August last year, acting on the party leadership’s directives. Since then, contact between the government and the opposition has nearly broken down, after earlier negotiations failed and governor’s rule and an emergency were imposed in PTI-governed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Bilawal’s speech was an attempt to break that deadlock through the committee system itself, rather than through another round of public exchanges.
Bilawal urges opposition to name committee members
Bilawal said the National Assembly had passed a resolution on electoral reforms at its preceding meeting, before the opposition withdrew from the committees. He argued that the next step was practical, not rhetorical. If Parliament had decided to form an Electoral Reforms Committee, Achakzai should exercise his authority as leader of the opposition, nominate members and submit their names to the speaker’s office.
“If the opposition party leaders are truly serious about wanting to see this Parliament activated and all of us playing our roles together in it, then I appeal to them to please utilise the powers that Khan Sahib has granted to the opposition leaders in the National Assembly and Senate, and direct their members to start attending the meetings of the most important committees,” Bilawal said.
He warned that the absence of opposition representatives from House committees and briefings would weaken efforts to build agreement among stakeholders on electoral reforms, counterterrorism, defence and economic matters. He put the point bluntly to the opposition benches.
“If we make an effort to establish the Electoral Reforms Committee and you are not there, what is the point? If we persuade all stakeholders to come together on terrorism, defence agreements and economic issues, but your representatives are absent, what is the purpose of sitting here, delivering speeches and holding sessions?” he asked.
Bilawal also linked committee participation to the opposition’s own central complaint. He said that if the opposition wanted alleged electoral rigging to be addressed in the coming general elections and local government elections, the process could begin with the leader of the opposition deciding that PTI members would join the Electoral Reforms Committee.
Briefing demand on Iran, Hormuz and the economy
Bilawal went further than committee membership. He called for the finance minister, the foreign minister, the defence minister and the interior minister to give Parliament a comprehensive briefing on the changing regional situation. He named the war in Iran, disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, and Pakistan’s recent defence agreements as subjects on which lawmakers needed direct information.
“The House should be informed about the changing situation in the region, the Iran conflict, and the potential impacts on the global economy and Pakistan’s economy from the problems facing key maritime trade routes,” he said.
That briefing demand lands in the middle of a live parliamentary row over the Tehran visit, with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi defending his trip in the Senate and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif clashing with JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in the National Assembly, as reported in Feature Pakistan’s coverage of Naqvi’s Senate remarks and the Asif-Fazl exchange.
What happened next in the House
The appeal did not stay at the level of a speech. A PPP delegation met Achakzai in the National Assembly to invite the opposition leader to join the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms. The delegation comprised Raja Pervez Ashraf and Syed Naveed Qamar, and Senate Opposition Leader Raja Nasir Abbas was also present, according to a PPP statement.
