PPP’s ‘reluctance’
Reports of reservations on the Pakistan People’s Party’s
(PPP’s) part to go all out in support of the combined opposition’s protests and
internal deliberations point to problems in the opposition alliance. The
noticeable absence of Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-chairperson Asif
Zardari from the protests mounted by the opposition so far and, perhaps more
significantly, from the internal deliberations of the alliance may point to two
factors impeding the PPP’s all out support to the stance of the opposition.
One, it is no secret that the PPP was annoyed by Nawaz Sharif’s abandoning the
Charter of Democracy he signed with the late Benazir Bhutto in exile in London
in 2016 after the PPP-PML-N coalition government formed after the 2008
elections broke up. Subsequently, Nawaz Sharif played an active role in
embarrassing the PPP government politically and in the courts. The PPP, despite
its restraint and repeated advice to Nawaz Sharif during his tenure as prime
minister from 2013 to 2017 to strengthen parliament and bring all issues,
including the Panama Papers leaks, to the house for resolution, finally seemed
to have lost patience with Nawaz Sharif. It even muttered under its breath that
Nawaz Sharif had suffered ignominy deservedly because of his own blunders while
ignoring the PPP’s well intentioned advice. Two, despite the statements by most
parties in the opposition alliance that the 2018 elections were flawed if not
rigged, the PPP knows that the main beneficiary of any all out support to the
opposition alliance will flow to the beleaguered PML-N and the Sharif family. Given
its sense of betrayal by the PML-N since 2008, the PPP seems reluctant to go
the whole hog in supporting the opposition’s protests. In any case, the PPP,
despite its criticisms of the 2018 polls, has settled for relatively mild, sans
the top leadership, protests without abandoning the platform of parliament.
However, now another report from PML-N sources says the PPP has rejected nominating
a ‘hawk’ such as Hamza Shahbaz Sharif as the opposition’s joint candidate for
the post of Punjab chief minister, preferring someone milder and acceptable to
all opposition parties such as Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Mohammad Iqbal. PPP
sources however say it was only a ‘suggestion’ in good faith.
But all this may not be the entire picture. Another report
holds the PPP is under pressure from ‘hidden forces’ to cooperate with Imran
Khan taking the office of prime minister and with the PTI to ensure smooth
running of its government over its five year tenure. Dissident voices within
the PPP ranks such as PPP Parliamentarians Secretary General Farhatullah Babar
point to the trickiness of the PPP having criticised the 2018 polls as rigged
and now being pushed to join hands with the PTI. Indeed, despite its relatively
sober, mature response to the elections controversy, the PPP finds itself in
the potentially embarrassing position of attempting to reconcile its critical
stance with the pressure from the establishment to cooperate with the incoming
PTI government. Of course, there could be another factor at play in this
scenario. Asif Zardari had pitched his party before the2018 elections as poised
to become a power broker in parliament, without whose support no other party
would be able to form a government. There were rumours abounding that Mr
Zardari had been hobnobbing with the establishment and may have had an
important role to play in the shenanigans that began with the ousting of the
PML-N-led Balochistan government, the election of a relatively unknown
politician from Balochistan as Senate Chairman, and the marginalisation of
Nawaz Sharif. Whether any of this holds water or not, another view in the light
of the above background is that the PPP is running with the hare and hunting
with the hounds simultaneously, i.e. supporting the combined opposition to
strengthen its bargaining position with the PTI. Speculative as these scenarios
are, the truth will perhaps not be long in coming out as Imran Khan prepares to
take the oath of prime minister on August 18 and the PTI constitutes its
government soon thereafter.
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