The PPP leadership must be happy at the PML(N)’s discomfiture over its failure to drive a wedge between the parties in the ruling coalition at a time when the government was buckling under the burden of energy crisis in the face of strident opposition from those trying to destabilise the system.
The PML(N) was well within its right to capitalise on the government’s inability to provide relief to the masses and overcome the challenges the country is currently facing. But by inciting the people to resort to the street agitation, it appeared desperate about mobilising the public to dislodge the PPP regime.
The Sharifs would never stop dreaming about the collapse of the government. But they were confused. Mian Nawaz Sharif said his party was ready to be part of the coalition led by the PPP but then added in the same breath, “I have come to the conclusion that if it stays in power any longer it would be disastrous for the country”. He makes no secret of his hatred for the PML(Q) and the MQM, yet he was willing to work with them if they could support the effort to bring about an in-house change.
Much to his chagrin, the PPP managed to bring both of its estranged allies back to the fold of the ruling coalition sooner than expected. That was followed by Prime Minister Gilani throwing a challenge to the PML(N) leadership to table a no-confidence motion against him if it wanted to bring the government down. “We have never taken the opposition as a threat….the opposition is afraid of the next senate election scheduled for March 2012 in which the PPP is set to secure a clear majority,” said the PM who was becoming increasingly impatient with the League’s confrontational politics.
It was the first time that Mr Gilani publicly expressed his annoyance against the League leadership and went to the extent of saying that dengue and Imran Khan were enough to unnerve it. Politics apart, the federal government never tried to embarrass the Punjab’s ruling elite for its failure to take preparatory measures to prevent the outbreak of the deadly epidemic; this restraint wasn’t reciprocated on the loadshedding issue. The PML(N) legislators were leading the violent mobs rampaging across the Punjab.
This lends strength to the perception that the League leadership has no coherent policy and it only reacts to the events, oblivious of the consequences of the reactive politics. Mr Gilani put his own spin on the issue, saying: “They (opposition) have no agenda…if the judiciary gives a verdict, they say they are with the judiciary, if the army comes up with a stance on Kerry-Lugar Bill, they say they are with the army. They exploited the loadshedding issue but now that we have resolved it within 48 hours, they must be looking for something else to persuade the people to agitate against the government.”
The PM deserves credit for always having taken the opposition on board whenever he thought the crisis facing the country was too complex to be resolved by the government alone, and for that he would not mind approaching the politicians, some of whom being his pet aversions. A case in point is the recently held All Parties Conference where he brought together the country’s political and military leadership to demonstrate national unity against the backdrop of Mike Mullen’s diatribe against the ISI.
Those who know the Prime Minister understand that he is quick at taking decisions and then asserting himself to make his opinion prevail in the party. He could anticipate the consequences of delay in the restoration of judiciary so he rushed to the Presidency, while the Long March led by Mian Nawaz was still far from to Islamabad, to tell Mr Zardari that the deposed judges must be restored immediately through an executive order, lest those nursing the Bonapartist tendencies dismantle the democratic process once again and send the political leadership across the divide behind bars.
As for Mr Gilani’s dealing with the opposition he has always adopted a conciliatory tone but he might have started realising that he has had enough of it. The outcome of the PML(N)-led sit-in at the Constitution Avenue must have given him confidence that while the PPP can tame its estranged partners and hold the ruling coalition together, the badly divided and fractured opposition poses no threat to the government. And if the PPP government manages to complete its mandated term in office without even having a simple majority that would leave the PML(N) leadership wondering why it couldn’t achieve the objective despite having two-thirds majority in the National Assembly in the past.
Mian Nawaz might be able to find the answer to this question. All that he needs to do is to sit back, relax and do some soul-searching. Confrontation and politics of brinkmanship will lead him nowhere.
The writer is Executive Editor, Pakistan Today.