It was pathetic to watch on the TV screen the lawmakers from the PPP and PML-N physically assault and come to blows with each other in the National Assembly on June 1 as Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh delivered his budget speech. The scene stood in sharp contrast to the cooperation and partnership forged between the two largest parties immediately after the 2008 polls results, based on their commitments to abide by the provisions of the Charter of Democracy. Positively responding to the PPP’s call for national reconciliation and starting a new era of consensus-based politics in the country, the PML-N had not only joined the federal government, it had also accommodated the PPP as a coalition partner in Punjab. For those both inside and outside Pakistan who believed unity and cooperation among the political forces was essential to ensure the supremacy of civilian forces over the army-led establishment, it was a welcome move. However, this partnership could not last long due to a widening gap between the two parties on a number of issues, chief among them being the restoration of the Chief Justice of Pakistan deposed by the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf. The unwise decision of the federal government to put Punjab under governor’s rule and the long march organised by the PML-N in support of the Chief Justice early in 2009 further widened the gulf between the PPP and PML-N. The PPP and PML-N are today facing each other as adversaries; the two may head opposing alliances of political parties in the next elections.
In the last more than three years, the PML-N has acted rather impulsively against the federal government, targeting both President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, primarily with a view to removing the stigma of a so-called ‘friendly’ opposition, a charge levelled by mainly Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Imran Khan and the leadership of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). These two parties and some other elements bracketed the PPP and PML-N and accused them of being together responsible for the existing mess in the country. Imran Khan claimed the PML-N was acting in complicity with the PPP and was a source of sustainability and strength for the Zardari-Gilani government by sitting in parliament and ruling over Punjab. In Khan’s view, the PML-N could prove its credentials as a genuine opposition only by quitting the assemblies and giving up power in Punjab. One fails to understand the logic behind this demand as the PML-N was voted into power by the people for a five-year term to govern at the provincial level and sit in parliament. The party, therefore, was wise when it decided not to resign from the assemblies despite continuous pressure from the JI and PTI.
However, the PML-N has visibly assumed an aggressive posture vis-à-vis the PPP-led federal government, missing no opportunity to undermine it through acts of defiance and a sustained campaign of vilification and corruption charges. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s outbursts against President Zardari and Mian Nawaz Sharif’s announcement that he no longer recognised Gilani as the prime minister are the two principal examples of how far the two parties have moved away from each other. One could very easily discern the contradictions in the public posture of the PML-N during the last three years. The main plank of its political discourse during the last four years has been the oft-repeated assertion that the party would not let democracy be derailed, and that it would not be a party to any extra-constitutional move for unseating the present government. However, the party launched a vigorous campaign to oust the president by raising the slogan of ‘Go Zardari Go’. This was followed by filing a petition in the Supreme Court on the so-called memo scandal, whose manifest goal was to bring down the government through the mobilisation of the higher judiciary. The PML-N is punching the PPP from all sides. In addition to frontal attacks, the PML-N is attacking the PPP from left and right. In order to cash in on the growing resentment among the lower and middle rank leadership of the Sindh PPP over President Zardari’s appeasement policy towards the MQM, Mian Nawaz Sharif has very shrewdly made a strong statement against the division of Sindh. He has also created for himself a soft corner in the hearts of Sindhi nationalists by his abstaining from a denunciation of the movement for Sindhudesh openly. In Balochistan too, the PML-N has managed to gain political ground by demanding the trial of Pervez Musharraf for murdering Nawab Akbar Bugti. For Sindhi as well as Baloch nationalists, Mian Nawaz Sharif carries an attractive appeal as his is the only party that has constantly and consistently opposed the military’s meddling in national politics and has pledged to bring the military under political control, a feat people expected the PPP to perform.
In its largely reactive and thoughtless politics, the PML-N seems to have been swayed away from its earlier stances based on principled politics, i.e. letting the democratic political process successfully complete the phase of transition, and wait until the next elections to provide the people an opportunity to choose their new leaders.
The writer is a professor of International Relations at Sargodha University. He can be reached at [email protected]