With the PML(N) facing trouble in reshaping the Punjab Cabinet, the strain of embracing the turncoats must be getting too much to bear for Mian Nawaz Sharif. Maybe he understands that he has been forced to take a decision that goes against his moral fibre but he is yet unaware of the consequences of the political blunder he has committed.
By choosing the course of patronising horsetrading, the PML(N) leadership has not only violated the Charter of Democracy, which binds the two mainstream parties to refrain from encouraging defections, but it will also be blamed by its detractors for pursuing the politics of confrontation. It is going to get tough time from the PPP which will be adding to the strength of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly.
Theres going to be a problem at the Treasury Benches as well. It wont take Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif too long to realise that he was much more comfortable with jiyalas like Raja Riaz and Tanveer Ashraf Kaira on his side than with this bunch of turncoats. The fact that almost everyone among them is a contender for a ministerial slot will make the task of cabinet formation harder for the CM. The Unification Bloc has no love lost for the Custodians of the Raiwind Estate; they simply lived up to their reputation of switching loyalties and would now want to be rewarded for ditching the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.
Mian Nawazs claim that members of the Unification Bloc were allowed to return to their Parent Party only after they had apologised for committing a folly of joining the Q-League can be rubbished. Most of them had been launched into politics by General Musharraf and they had never been part of the League led by Sharifs. The rest of them were those who defected to the Kings Party because they strongly believe in remaining loyal to their party as long as it is in power. Ata Maneka is a case in point. No matter which party was in power the PPP, the PML(N), the PML(Q) or Wattoos Lota League he has been part of every government in the post-1988 era.
The PML(N) leadership must be happy to find the PPP not having resisted the ouster of its ministers from the Punjab Cabinet. But it has not been able to realise that it is just because of the fact that President Asif Zardari has avoided politics of confrontation while carrying forward his slain wifes legacy of reconciliation. This does not mean that his party had not confronted the PML(N) during the past three years but that had always come as a counter move. There is no doubt that democracy inculcates tolerance. But then you cannot expect Federal Law Minister Baber Awan to quietly let his provincial counterpart Rana Sanaullah and a few other street urchins like him keep hurling abuses and pouring out filth against the PPP leadership.
The Rana, who has been giving nasty remarks against Mian Nawaz as a PPP backbencher in the Punjab Assembly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, needs no tutorials on how to be indecent and misbehave with others. The PML(N) leadership can unleash him as and when it needs to counter its political opponents criticising bad governance and corruption in the Punjab. Sharif brothers cannot find a better choice than Rana Sana to give a bazaari touch to their frequent outbursts against the President and other PPP leaders. That they were never seen admonishing their law minister or apologising to those whom he had offended proves that it had been happening on their watch.
This is not the case with the PPP. Its leadership wasted no time in approaching Nine-Zero to apologise for Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirzas diatribe against the MQM. This was part of the Party policy to resolve differences with allies through negotiation and keep the coalition intact. Taking it as a gesture of goodwill the MQM agreed to on sit the Treasury Benches in the National Assembly. The manifestation of this policy was also visible in a series of meetings the President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani had with Maulana Fazlur Rehman after the JUI had withdrawn support to the coalition at the Centre over the sacking of Azam Swati. At times, the PPP had capitulated to the blackmailing of smaller partners but that was only aimed at saving the system. It wouldnt have done so had the PML(N) complemented its efforts to strengthen democracy.
Mr Zardari, who spent years in incarceration, has learnt that salvation of democracy lies in adherence to the process of reconciliation. He can outmanoeuvre his friends and foes by his smart political moves but would not like to be seen treading the path of confrontation. Mian Nawazs years in exile have been without such learning.
The writer is Executive Editor, Pakistan Today.