There’s so much happening on the political front – allies cajoling allies, friends turning into foes, foes friends; Imran Khan leading sit-ins against drone strikes and Maulana Fazlur Rehman playing hide and seek – that one finds it hard to decide as to which issue to write about and where to start. Let it be the PPP-PML(Q) power-sharing deal that has come as a bombshell for the PML (N). Driven into isolation, its leadership has none but itself to blame.
The Sharif’s dilemma: They aren’t getting off their high horse even when they have started losing their allies. The PPP’s strategy of winning over other political parties as part of its coalition-building effort has pushed the Punjab’s ruling elite further into a tight spot. Ch Nisar’s violent diatribes against President Asif Zardari is a manifestation of the PML(N)’s desperation for building pressure on the PPP and mustering the support of its opponents.
Given its little or no presence in the other three provinces, the possibility of the PML(N) forming its government at the federal level remains a distant dream. What might have now started haunting its leadership is the danger of losing power in the Punjab in the wake of the power-sharing deal between the PPP and the PML(Q). Bad governance coupled with internal dissensions further reduces the chance of the PML(N) doing any better in the next general elections especially when so many odds are already stacked against it.
Most of the problems the PML(N) is currently facing are of its own making. It continued accusing the PPP of having violated the Charter of Democracy which the top leaders of the two mainstream parties had signed while in exile. But when it comes to its own conduct, it is replete with deviations from the pledges that formed the basis of this document. Despite its repeated claim of not letting the federal government fall, it did everything it could possibly do to weaken the PPP rule, indirectly lending support to the forces inimical to democracy. Mian Shahbaz Sharif has no reasoned argument for his midnight meetings with the COAS other than inking them with the security of his province.
The last three years of the current democratic rule also highlights the PML(N)’s aversion to a coalition set-up. It was well within its right to pull out of the coalition at the federal level because of its reservations against the official policies and the way the government was being run by the PPP. Such things happen in democracies. But the Punjab ruling leadership would be remembered for taking a unique decision of showing the door to its junior partner against the latter’s will to remain part of the provincial coalition.
That was preceded by an exercise conducted by the PML(N) to first create a forward bloc in the PML (Q) and then embrace the turncoats to retain its majority in the provincial legislature. This reflected a peculiar mindset harking back to the 1990s phenomenon in total disregard of the Charter of Democracy that leaves no room for the revival of the dirty politics of the past. The problem with the Raiwind clan is that while the PPP believes in dealing with the parties rather than individuals, they are doing just the opposite.
Despite Mian Nawaz Sharif’s repeated announcements that he would never accept those who had deserted the party after his unceremonious dismissal from power, he appeared to have softened his stance on this issue after returning from exile and expressing his readiness to take almost everyone back to his fold barring the Chaudhrys of Gujrat.
President Zardari initiated talks with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat after the MQM’s constant blackmailing and the PML(N)’s brinkmanship had compelled him to seek political support for the smooth passage of budget. Before doing so he tried to put his own house in order and neutralised the intra-party opposition to the proposed power-sharing arrangement that mainly emanated from the local rivalries in Gujrat.
Once the issue was settled he faced no difficulty in convincing his parliamentary party that when the PPP could pull together with the MQM, with which it didn’t share a pleasant past, where lies the harm in joining hands with those who are ready to “cooperate with us” for the sake of democracy.
A similar thing can be witnessed in the PML(Q) Camp. Its leadership didn’t give up effort to win over its angry colleagues while simultaneously furthering the process of negotiations with the PPP. After their party’s rout in the last general elections the Chaudhrys played it cool, showing utmost patience even when subjected to political victimisation. They have every right to draw some mileage by striking a deal with the country’s largest political force at a time when it had almost become extinct. But the Sharifs are yet to learn any lesson from their past mistakes. They continued making desperate moves to throw a spanner in the works in order to scuttle the power-sharing process.
The writer is Executive Editor, Pakistan Today.