PML-N and KP government
The PML-N is bitter about the PTI. Right at the time when the Chinese are investing billions of dollars in the CPEC while the IMF is satisfied with the government’s policies and Moody’s and Standard and Poor have upgraded the country’s ratings, Imran Khan has thrown a spanner in the works. The decision by the Election Tribunal in NA-125 has shaken the government. The frustration was reflected in the remarks of bad cop Pervez Rashid who accused the PTI of jumping to PML-N’s jugular while simultaneously asking for more federal funds.
Good cop Khawaja Asif was more accommodative. As the protesters jostled with the police in a bid to enter Parliament House, the Federal Minister for Water and Power himself escorted them inside. The talks between Asif and the representatives of protesting provincial lawmakers, led by Chief Minister KP, ended on a positive note as they left without observing a sit-in. The minister promised that the demands related to frequent power failures in KP would be met by Friday while he would arrange a meeting between CM KP and the elusive Finance Minister within the next few days. Khawaja Asif needs to walk the talk now.
There is a need on the part of the PM to take parliamentary leaders on board when he meets them today regarding the precise direction of the Gwadar-Gilgit route, an issue which continues to haunt the smaller provinces. In July last year Kh Asif had called on CM KP to assure him that the province’s power related problems would be resolved soon. He had in fact suggested a number of quick fixes. Unless federal government acts more seriously, a perception would be created that it had all along led the provincial government down the garden path. The PML-N government must not allow rivalry with PTI to create a sense of deprivation in KP by ignoring its constitutional obligations to the province. It has to realise that the protesters who came to Islamabad were also represented by three parties sitting in the opposition.
