Daily Times

In apparently uncoordinated yet bizarrely coinciding developments, the PPP government is clearly being assailed from different directions. The PML-N launched its ‘Go Zardari Go’ campaign on October 28 with a rally in Lahore. The PML-N has traversed a difficult but interesting relationship with the PPP over the past three and half years, characterised by pendulum swings. During this period the PML-N initially formed part of the coalition at the centre, later resigned, fought a bitter battle in Punjab against the PPP’s attempts to bring down Mian Shahbaz Sharif’s government, was at loggerheads with the PPP for the reinstatement of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, voted with the majority to pass the 18th amendment, forced out the PPP from the Punjab assembly’s treasury benches, and has vowed relentlessly and repeatedly to not derail democracy or support any unconstitutional means to dislodge the incumbents at the centre. For the most part, PML-N was regarded as a ‘friendly opposition’, essentially because of its efforts to cooperate with the ruling party in the interests of letting democracy be consolidated. Come October 2011, however, the PML-N’s differences with the PPP have taken on a distinctly different hue: that of opposition for the sake of opposition with the idea of dislodging the government by hook or by crook. It certainly appears the likelihood of the PPP coming out on top in the Senate elections in March 2012 is the main catalyst for the PML-N’s changed behaviour.

Imran Khan and the PTI have renewed their call for early elections under a ‘neutral’ set up. Put together with Imran’s past statements of supplication to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, his insinuations of the judiciary looking to the army to intervene to disrupt the present government, and his numerous calls for the president and the prime minister to be sacrificed at the altar of the military’s failures (Mehran Base attack and the Osama bin Laden fiasco earlier this year), Imran Khan’s establishment-aligned continued targeting of the democratic process takes on an ominous complexion.

The saga of the memo man, Mansur Ijaz, clearly designed to embarrass and damage the PPP government, is another onslaught. Many an unexplained facet of this still unfolding mystery means that the identity or identities of the masterminds remains masked so far. However, it forms another component of the wider efforts to prevent the present government from completing its term.

The ongoing tension with the MQM, with Zulfiqar Mirza’s inexplicable role in deepening the fissures between the PPP and the MQM, the appearance of distancing of the party from him, and the more recent indications to the contrary (‘Zulfiqar Mirza is family’) may also appear as another strike on the ruling party. However, the jury is still out on whether the Zulfiqar Mirza factor is really the blow to the PPP that it is being made out to be, or whether it is the PPP’s convoluted attempt at keeping the MQM and Altaf Hussain on the straight and narrow through a combined strategy of pressure and alliance.

Whilst any and all attempts, from whichever quarter, to damage, set back or derail the nascent democratic process in the country is to be roundly condemned and discouraged, the PPP government cannot be let off easily either. The PPP frittered away the political capital and sympathy from Benazir’s tragic death, misused the mandate given by people in a largely fair election, squandered the goodwill and sincerity of the main opposition party of Mian Nawaz Sharif through sheer overarching complacency. The PPP misgoverned, it appears sometimes, as if with a vengeance. The fallout of such a monumental failure to deliver for the people that brought it to power unfortunately has not just caused the voter to become apathetic to the PPP’s fate, but also shaken up the political process. It is no wonder then that frustration and disillusionment with the present government has manifested itself in growing support for Imran Khan’s single note slogan of corruption, despite his obvious shortcomings and establishment leanings.

A word to the wise: it is not too late. Put your house in order, make a sincere effort at good, clean governance and avoid unnecessary confrontation, and you may just save yourself as well as untold damage to the country.*