Born fully mature with leaders and legislators
Following the successful revolt of PML-N and PML-Q dissidents during Senate chairman election in March, and its stunning result, the disparate band, which also includes independents, has felt emboldened to announce in Quetta on Thursday the launch of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP),‘awami’ despite its political-tribal elitism, with an electoral eye on 2018. Normally, launch of a new party involves painful teething troubles, leadership, financial and organizational, as well as the constant struggle to attract new membership. But the BAP has already inveigled 20 breakaway dissidents from the PML-N and PML-Q, and won support of incumbent Balochistan chief minister and newly- elected Senate chairman. Election of its top tier leadership, in whose name the new party is to be registered with Election Commission of Pakistan, will be finalized in April/May, but achieving complete consensus on these substantial matters and on official party constitution and manifesto will need to be accelerated for assured participation in forthcoming national polls. However, considering the extreme sensitivity of the long restive province, CPEC getting in top gear, irritating presence of strident nationalists with divergent slogans and aims, the Founding Fathers have reason enough to be satisfied with BAP’s formation at this stage, with its reassuring straightforward election slogan of ‘stronger nation, unified people’.
The BAP was newborn with a chief ideologue too, the former PML-Q Senator Saeed Hashmi, reportedly the chief architect of the dissident revolt, new CM’s appointment and BAP creation, who defined the party’s creed as being that of PML (both ‘N’ and ‘Q’, it is presumed), but under another title, a rearrangement he hoped would facilitate emergence of young local and national leadership, while expressing frustration at mainstream parties’ apathetic attitude towards Balochistan. The party’s central spokesperson also voiced unwavering commitment to democratic rights of people of Balochistan and of possible alliance with nationalist parties. But to make a real difference, and to strengthen its national standing and the federation, the BAP will have to align either with the PPP or the PTI, or else be relegated to mere provincial grouping status. Unfortunately, the country already has a surfeit of these.