PTI’s ‘incompetence’ brings PPP and PML-N closer

—Asif Zardari calls all Opp parties to unite against PTI govt’s failure to run country’s affairs

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has hinted at the possibility of mending fences with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), as it called for a “united front against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for its incompetence in running affairs of the country”.

Addressing a press conference in the capital on Sunday, former president and party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari asked all the opposition parties, including the PML-N – the largest opposition party in the Centre – to jointly bring a resolution against the government, which has “failed” in a very short time.

The ties have been frayed between the two largest parties in the parliament but the incumbent government’s policies, especially the accountability drive, seems to be bringing former allies closer.

At an event organised by the PPP on Sunday, a resolution was also passed which stated that the incumbent government’s incompetence had been laid bare in a short time.

Predicting that the government will not be able to function for long, Zardari said, “Neither is the government going to continue, nor can it run the country.”  He also claimed that the PPP delivered in its five years of government.

Rejecting that he ever benefited from the National Reconciliation Order (NRO), Zardari lamented that all cases against him were reopened. Nawaz might have benefited from the deal, he hinted.

Criticising the treatment being meted out to the politicians by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the PPP-P president said that NAB was calling peoples’ servants to answer questions in investigations just like the way it happened in the time of former president Pervez Musharraf.

Answering a question, Zardari said he did not make any remarks about the NAB chairman, rather he raised questions about the latter’s thinking and manner of work.

Without naming anyone, the former president said that when some people are given charge of an important office, their manners change completely. “When I became the president I transferred all powers to the parliament,” he recalled, “But Nawaz Sharif did not like any of our policies.”

It is pertinent to mention that a similar joint opposition alliance took form after the July 25 general elections to protest against and investigate the alleged rigging during the polls. The alliance, however, fell apart after the PPP refused to back PML-N nominated Shehbaz Sharif as the candidate for prime minister owing to the harsh language he used against the PPP leadership in past.

The alliance faced another setback after the opposition failed to place a consensus candidate for the post of president. The PML-N asked the PPP to withdraw the name of Aitzaz Ahsan as its candidate for the president and back Maulana Fazlur Rehman as the consensus candidate.  This too was rejected by the PPP owing to the differences that had developed between the two major parties, further widening the gulf.

However, Pakistan Today learnt that behind the scenes, PML-N quietly scrambled efforts to win support from PPP to organise phase-wise protests against the PTI government on issues of public concern.

The protests against the PTI government are of particular concern to the PML-N as its leaders including Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif are facing corruption trials and accuse the PTI government of being behind the witch-hunt.

The PTI government, however, has reiterated that all the plunderers will be taken to task and the accountability drive against the corrupt will continue.

Sources in the PML-N had informed Pakistan Today that the party has been in touch with the PPP leadership through former opposition leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, who played a key role in convincing party’s Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari to join forces with the PML-N.

They said that the PPP leadership was reluctant to support the idea of mass protests and hence the PML-N had been advised to only focus on protests inside the parliament.

The sources said that keeping in view the unpopular decisions by the PTI leadership — like price hike in petroleum products, rupee depreciation, stringent drive against encroachments and tax measures — the PML-N has been hoping for public support regarding the prospects of a large-scale agitation.

However, the sources said that the protests would be incremented phase by phase. The sources said that Nawaz Sharif has finalised a strategy under which various committees had been formed to contact people from different sectors and include them in the PML-N to expand base for the mass protests.

On the other hand, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had been tasked to establish contacts with the opposition parties to try and bring them on one platform to build a structured anti-government drive, sources said, adding that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had been assigned to bring the PPP on the opposition’s platform as other parties, including Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), National Party (NP), Awami National Party (ANP), and others, were already on board with the PML-N.

“A major concern for Nawaz has been the PPP which has been reluctant to join forces with the PML-N. The PPP lawmakers had also stayed away from the public protest of opposition parties recently organised outside the parliament house. Hence, Maulana [Fazl] has been asked to play the role of bridging the two sides,” the sources said.

Sources in the PPP, however, said that the party leadership was convinced only to lend support to the joint opposition on the public issues.

“We would extend issue-based support to the PML-N and its allies. We believe that it would be too early to even think of an anti-government agitation and rather believe that the new government should be given apt time to deliver the goods. The people have voted the PTI into government and dislodging them within the first few months is a bad idea,” a senior PPP leader said, citing not being mentioned.

The source said that the PPP was convinced that any move to dislodge the government would be immature and may destabilise the democratic system.

“We are not going to support any move to save any specific politician from the court cases. However, if we think that the government is involved in a witch hunt we will raise our voices,” the PPP leader asserted.

When asked whether the PPP leadership would mull over any public agitation, the PPP leader said that the party has considered the parliament as the centre to express any difference of opinion and grievance.

“We will only support the PML-N to protest inside the parliament, for the time being. We may think of joining hands with the opposition if it is imperative to save the country and the system,” the source added.

When contacted, PPP Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira said that the PPP had supported the demand of the PML-N to bring the opposition leader to the NA session.

“We had signed the requisition regarding the issue of production orders for Shehbaz in the upcoming NA session. We stand by the PML-N on their demand to produce Shehbaz on October 17. We also have an election adjustment with the PML-N in the upcoming elections. However, it is too early to comment on the possibility of PPP’s participation in any anti-government street protests,” the PPP leader concluded.

It is pertinent to mention here that during the October 17 session of the National Assembly, PML President Shehbaz Sharif thanked PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for his support for requisitioning NA session to discuss his [Shehbaz’s] arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).