And not finding much luck
Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) and Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) were two most significant political alliances of our history and both were formed to defeat the PPP in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto’s times respectively
Election season is near and almost all major political parties have started gaining momentum. Former President Asif Ali Zardari has announced to win the battleground of Punjab — the bastion of the Sharifs — while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is frequently visiting PPP stronghold of Sindh. Punjab is going to be the jewel in the crown, as always, in next general elections as 148 seats of the National Assembly are from this province and any party can easily form the government in the centre by winning Punjab.
Political alliances play an important role in the elections. The political history of Pakistan is witness to many such electoral alliances. Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) and Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) were two most significant political alliances of our history and both were formed to defeat the PPP in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto’s times respectively. Interestingly, the same PPP is desperately trying to form an alliance with any political party for the upcoming general elections and no one seems willing because of its dismal performance in the last elections, when the party could win only eight seats of Punjab Assembly out of 371.
PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari has tasked Mian Manzoor Wattoo — former PPP Punjab president – with wooing some heavyweight politicians of central Punjab into the party fold. Zardari has also instructed his Punjab leadership to make alliances with other political parties as well before the next elections but so far PPP has not received any positive signals.
Senator Kamil Ali Agha of Pakstan Muslim League (Q) told DNAthat it is not the priority of his party to form an alliance with PPP at this stage as they want to first organise their own party.
“Yes, Zardari Sahib recently hosted a luncheon in the honour of Chaudhry Brothers (Ch Shujaat Hussain and Ch Parvez Elahi) and he wanted to make an electoral alliance with our party but our leaders have not accepted the proposal so far”.
He added that they can only decide after having deliberations within the party and most of the party leaders want to hold party’s conventions first in order to re-organise for the election.
“One thing is clear that PML-Q will jump in the electoral exercise in collaboration with Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek and some other parties including Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen and Sunni Ittehad Council. Our party is also in contact with PTI and matters related to seat adjustments have almost been resolved in some districts of Punjab including Chakwal and Attock,” he said.
PTI’s MPA from Punjab Mian Aslam Iqbal completely ruled out any possibility of electoral alliance or seat adjustment with PPP in the next elections.
“The long struggle of PTI will go waste if our party makes any sort of electoral alliance or seat adjustment with PPP,” Iqbal said, who is a veteran political worker and was recently made information secretary of his party from Punjab. There is a principle in practical politics that it takes birth at grass root level and people of Punjab literally hate PPP at grass root and therefore there is no chance of making alliance with the party, Iqbal, who has also served as Union Council Nazim in 2001, added.
He further told DNA that PML-N is trying to let he PPP enter Punjab to dent PTI’s vote bank and it is now evident that both parties are two faces of the same coin. Iqbal was of the view that political alliances are formed on the basis of similarities in political manifestos and there was no such common ground with these parties.
Veteran political analyst Sohail Warraich told DNA that PML-N will become invincible if the verdict of Panama Case comes in the favour of Nawaz Sharif and if all other political parties fail to make any electoral alliance before the next general elections.
Both PTI and PPP seemed coming close to each other when the Panama Leaks surfaced and their relationship was then called as ‘alliance of necessity’ but their short honeymoon was over as PTI leadership termed the bail of Dr Asim and return of Sharjeel Memon as part of a deal between PML-N and PPP
“It will be better for other parties to form a grand alliance by setting aside their differences for the greater good if they really want to defeat PML-N,” Warraich said, who is an expert on constitutional politics of Pakistan. He further added that some leaders of PPP, including Qamar Zaman Kaira and Nadeem Afzal Chan, want to make an alliance with PTI and it remains to be seen how much both the parties come close to each other in the aftermath of final verdict of Panama case.
Qazi Ahmad Saeed, an MPA of PPP from Rahimyar Khan and parliamentary leader of his party, told this scribe that the election of 2018 will be more interesting as his leader Asif Ali Zardari has announced to sit in Lahore during the election process.
“We have not received any instruction so far to make an alliance with other political parties. The only task that we have been given is to intensify public dealing in our constituencies,” Saeed said.
He was of the view that a coalition government will be formed in Punjab after the next election as same type of government was formed after 2008 in the province.
“It is a wrong impression that Punjab belongs to Sharifs only as their party was seen nowhere in the province in 2002 elections and they are going to disappear from the province once again as they will not get seats from southern Punjab that is 40 percent of the whole province,” he said.
Both PTI and PPP seemed coming close to each other when the Panama Leaks surfaced and their relationship was then called as ‘alliance of necessity’ but their short honeymoon was over as PTI leadership termed the bail of Dr Asim and return of Sharjeel Memon as part of a deal between PML-N and PPP.
It is heartening that the party against which the electoral alliances were made in the past is now itself trying to get some political partners to remain in the political arena but no one seems willing to shake its hand.
