You cant think of anything more inconsequential than Babar Awans political moves. Yet he stirs up public curiosity and offends political opponents.
The meeting he had with Ch Pervez Elahi early in Lahore last week is a case in point. The PPP and the Q-League have no love lost for each other. It was the circumstances rather than their own will which have brought them together. They came into contact when they felt being politically pressed in a vice. Both sides must be trying to ring-fence us with lies by claiming to cooperate with each other for the sake of democracy. They had their compulsions. If the PPP was perturbed over the MQMs unfriendly overtures, the effort to unify the Leagues started giving nervous headache to Ch Pervez and cousin Shujaat following Nawaz Sharifs announcement that he would join the process only if The Chaudhrys of Gujrat and Sh Rasheed Ahmad were kept out of it.
It was against this backdrop that the Babar-Elahi meeting took place. The two parties had reasons to eschew politics of bitterness and make a fresh start. Their detractors, including some media hacks, continued to play up differences between the PPP and the party its leadership had once declared Qatil-League. None of them was ready to give credence to the fact that Q-League was part of the parliamentary consensus which resulted in Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilanis winning a unanimous vote of confidence in March 2008. But since the two sides understood that it would be premature to hope for any common agenda, they restricted themselves to saying they would work together for the cause of democracy.
The initial excitement shown by the two leaders was somewhat mellowed by strong reaction from their respective ranks. It was not the intra-party opposition that restrained the Chaudhrys of Gujrat from accepting the PPPs offer to join the federal government as a coalition partner but they thought it would be suicidal to do so without having any power-sharing deal in the Punjab. They had conflicting interests. The Q-League was more interested in warding off defections from its provincial parliamentary party while the PPP wanted to sound a warning to the MQM to refrain from upsetting the applecart by becoming part of any move to vote out Prime Minister Gilani. Maybe it also cant lose sight of the benefits it can have in the long run by scuttling the Leagues unification and keeping the Q-League on its side.
Theres no gainsaying the fact that the Q has more potential candidates in the Punjab than all other parties put together. That most of them could switch over to the N-League before the next general elections might well explain the N-leaderships knee-jerk reaction to the dramatic political development. The nervousness in the House of Sharifs was obvious. Nawaz and the kid brother got together along with their close aides to discuss and devise a strategy to counter the move initiated by the PPP to woo the Q-League. It might be satisfying for theSharif brothers to see the Forward Bloc members re-pledge them their allegiance but they have yet to realize that they will have to put their own house in order by giving respect to their party members. Its time they seriously thought about shedding their arrogance.
The N-leadership could not get it more right that the Awan-Elahi meeting was inconsequential. But then it also needs to understand that if the fear of becoming vulnerable has compelled the PPP to embrace its erstwhile political rivals it can also end up facing an even more embarrassing situation. If it comes to the crunch the PPP would not quietly let its allies-turned-rivals topple the PM without retaliating against Shahbaz Sharif in the Punjab. Prime Minister Gilani, who has lately been seen taking firm positions against his detractors, has already hinted at his party sitting on the opposition benches in the Punjab Assembly if the N-League didnt start behaving. And if it happens so the N-League could barely maintain its majority in the House of 372.
No matter how one looks at the PPPs reaching out to the Q-League: a mere tactical move or something beyond that. Theres no harm in the political parties readjusting themselves or making new alignments so long as it is not meant to destabilize the system. Nawaz Sharif et al cannot blame the PPP for creating a political space for the Q-League which appears to be on the verge of extinction. Their aversion for the quislings is no secret but it was not very long ago when Shahbaz Sharif went rushing to the Chaudhrys of Gujrat to seek their support against the Governors Rule. Perhaps what was fair for the N-League then is fair for the PPP now. It is well within its rights to send disturbing signals to the political opponents through its moves.
The writer is Executive Editor, Pakistan Today