- The opposition agrees the government must go
Without necessarily agreeing on how, the opposition parties seem to have achieved consensus on a target; that the government must go. This was what emerged from the meeting of the PPP’s Nayyar Bukhari and Sherry Rehman with the JUI-F’s Akram Durrani. In a presser on Wednesday with Mr Bukhari, Mr Durrani said the individual parties disagreed on how this goal was to be achieved, and the talks were meant to find how this was to be done.
There seems to be a lot of mutual suspicion going around. The PPP and the PML-N seem to be uncomfortable with the Azadi March, neither being sure that it will lead to the desired goal of the ouster of the government. Besides, both are not happy with the fact that the Azadi March is essentially a JUI-F show. And though the JUI-F is making a general demand of fresh elections after the removal of the government, there is the sneaking suspicion that the party leader is unhappy with his absence from the National Assembly, and the Azadi March is merely a way to get him the fresh election he needs to make a comeback. Conversely, the JUI-F sees the PPP and PML-N as more concerned with getting their imprisoned leaders released than with anything else.
The PML-N and the PPP have also got to overcome the fear that the ouster of the government might only be possible by the imposition of military rule. This is not something either looks forward to. The Azadi March is still somewhat nebulous, with the date not yet fixed, and depending on a meeting between the PML-N and the JUI-F. Another hurdle the JUI-F has to overcome are the PML-N’s and the PPP’s reservations on the use of religion by the JUI-F. That takes the whole debate onto the more philosophical one of the role of religion in politics rather than the mundane one of how to oust the government. It may be appropriate, for theoretical debates will prove useful if only to while away the time until the ouster becomes possible. The opposition must remember that it has only a limited time, for the nation is fast approaching the point where parties find it better to reserve efforts for coming elections.