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PPP losing head to fight a mindset
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Visits
92
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Visits
92
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Visits
92
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July 01, 2011
Reactionary course of politics is just evident from the statements of the leaders on the edge. The PML-N is furious while the MQM’s Altaf Hussain has said that the days of government have been numbered. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is talking about mid-terms polls, while Imran Khan is hopelessly saying that fair elections are not possible under Zardari-led regime. They can’t dent the PPP on individual basis. They will not unite — it is the PPP’s strategy.
PPP’s new politics is focused on the point to isolate the PML-N, encroach on its territory and marginalize it into insignificance in the upcoming general elections. The rest of the partners will have to be contented with what they have gained so far. In the emerging situation, if they react they will lose.
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Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has swept Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) polls held on June 26. Going by statistics, it has secured a position to make government on its own. The fresh victory comes on the heels of the unpleasant remarks the president, who is also the co-chairperson of the majority party, uttered recently in Naudero against the leadership of the PML-N. The AJK elections have also alienated the MQM, the party that has extended crucial support to the PPP since last general elections. Count here also the known rabble-raiser, the PTI, which kicked off a campaign to remove the government through its street power only a day before AJK elections. Of course, JI is also there to add its ranks to the opponents of the government, while JUI-F has yet to cast its lot on either side of the divide.
Actually, none deserves blame if the political temperature is rising and the conditions for political instability are surfacing at a time the War on Terror is entering into final phase. The PPP, through years of experience, has come to believe that it can’t take Pakistan to its desired direction without defeating the mindset, which wants to hold reins of power through coercive means. At Naudero, Asif Zardari talked in details about this mindset — it had killed the leadership of the PPP, right from Z.A Bhutto to Salman Taseer and Shahbaz Bhatti. He was addressing the party workers who had gathered around him to celebrate the birth anniversary of his wife and the late chairperson of the PPP — he remembered her assassination in Rawalpindi in December 2007 while she was on election campaign.
The AJK is another feather in PPP’s cap after it secured victory in Gilgit-Baltistan. The party is already in power in centre and the provinces except Punjab. The PPP has a long list of grievances against its opponents, which the president listed in details in his address at Naudero, but the gains it has made for its coalition partners from the smaller provinces are also unprecedented. While it kept the pledge to break the backbone of the religious extremists, concentrated in the tribal regions but drawing support from its extended network in Punjab, it was able to restore the Constitution of 1973 to its original spirit and stripped the Centre of a dozen of ministries and transferring the same to the provinces. The concurrent list has now been abolished and provinces have gained the power to levy taxes to cope with their additional responsibilities.
Going by the PPP interests, Asif Ali Zardari owes the credit to complete the mission of Z. A Bhutto, which he left behind him due to his overthrow, trial and hanging at the hands of the martial law regime led by General Zia-ul-Haq. His beloved daughter, Benazir Bhutto, also could not achieve the goals set by her father due to the fierce resistance by his opponents. Nawaz Sharif proved instrumental in leading the movement against her two governments during the 1990s, and finally marginalizing the party when he got into power with two-third majority in 1996. Benazir Bhutto went on self-imposed exile while Zardari languished in jail for a whole decade due to the cases registered against him during this period. Punjab and PML-N have played a central role for the tragedies brought to the Bhutto family. But despite all, the dynasty which Z. A Bhutto established, and Asif Zardari presides over, remains intact.
Change is the name of the game. After AJK polls, the PPP definitely has to move forward. It, in no way, can tread the beaten track. Asif Ali Zardari is confronting a Pakistan far different from that of Bhuttos. The ground realities of Pakistan have changed. The country’s population has increased manifold and the strategic scenario, which has duly set the mood of its politics, has drastically changed. Never before the international community, particularly America, has stood behind democracy as now. Asif Zardari would have to take unprecedented decision vis-à-vis the neighboring countries. He has to keep his party in leading position at home front as well.
PPP’s new politics is focused on the point to isolate the PML-N, encroach on its territory and marginalize it into insignificance in the upcoming general elections. The rest of the partners will have to be contented with what they have gained so far. In the emerging situation, if they react, they will lose.
PPP is banking heavily on the PML-Q, the archrival of the PML-N, to contest the upcoming polls. This party has emerged as the most prized partner of the PPP when the PML-N drew battle lines by dropping it from the Punjab cabinet. The new partner has agreed on redrawing the boundaries of Punjab and the Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa to create two new provinces comprising Southern Punjab and Hazara region. Though such a plan does not suit the interest of the ANP, Asif Zardari will expect from its leadership to reciprocate the good will he had extended to them on renaming the NWFP.
Reactionary course of politics is just visible from the statements of the leaders on the edge. The PML-N is furious while the MQM’s Altaf Hussain has said that the days of government have been numbered. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is talking about mid-term polls, while Imran Khan is hopelessly saying that fair elections are not possible under Zardari-led regime. They can’t dent the PPP on individual basis. They will not unite — it is the PPP’s strategy.
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