A new President
As widely
expected, Dr Arif Alvi sailed easily to victory in the presidential election,
aided and abetted by a divided opposition. Dr Alvi’s credentials as the ruling
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI’s) candidate are beyond question. A founding
member and part of the core leadership of the PTI, he stood with Prime Minister
Imran Khan through thick and thin. Being a party loyalist, PTI and its
supporters are obviously delighted at the ascent to the highest constitutional
post in the country of someone who has spent years struggling for the success
of the party. However, this very record raises doubts in other quarters about
the impartiality of the new incumbent because of partisan political
affiliation. President-elect Alvi attempted to allay such concerns in his first
interaction with the media after the presidential election by promising to be a
president for all parties, not just the incumbent PTI, and for all Pakistanis,
irrespective of political leanings. This is of course as it should be, given
the largely ceremonial role of the president as a symbol of the federation. The
mandate received by the new president saw him pip the combined electoral
college votes of the two opposition candidates, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and
Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, by 44 votes. Had the opposition combined to field a
single candidate, the result may not have been very different. However, the
controversy over the PPP embarking on a solo flight by not going along with the
rest of the opposition’s candidate ensured that Alvi’s expected victory turned
into a sure thing. PML-N president and prime ministerial candidate for whom the
PPP did not vote, Shahbaz Sharif, has extended an olive branch to the PPP to
let bygones be bygones and appealed to the entire opposition to combine inside
parliament to mount an effective opposition to the PTI government. That is the
role of any opposition, to ensure the incumbent government is held to its election
promises to the people. It remains to be seen though whether the person
perceived as having thrown a spanner in the works of opposition unity, PPP Co-chairperson
Asif Ali Zardari will respond positively to Shahbaz Sharif’s appeal or not.
There are all kinds of theories afloat arguing that Asif Zardari is attempting
through his non-cooperation with the PML-N to keep the powers that be sweet and
fend off the alleged corruption cases against him and sister Faryal Talpur that
have been ‘resurrected’ of late.
The other theory
doing the rounds is about the fragility of the main opposition party, the
PML-N’s ranks. This theory revolves around the number of votes for Dr Alvi over
and above what he would naturally have been expected to garner. The PML-Q’s
Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, now occupying the Punjab Assembly Speaker’s position, is
said to have made inroads into the PML-N’s main power bastion of Punjab and
persuaded at least some of the party’s members to aid Dr Alvi’s victory by ‘spoiling’
their votes. Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has denied the charge, arguing that he was
against forward bloc politics. All this swirling speculation may or may not
have any weight, but an atmosphere of questioning the solidity and loyalty of
the PML-N’s ranks under the pressure the party is being subjected to these days
is rife, based on the well known tendency in the past of Muslim Leagues
splintering when the going gets tough. The opposition as a whole has still to
show that it is capable of overcoming its internal divisions as reflected in
its performance in the presidential election. For the sake of a credible and
vibrant parliamentary democracy, the opposition parties perhaps need to heed
Shahbaz Sharif’s well intentioned advice and close ranks to keep the PTI
government on its toes.
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