With an adventurous October settling in, the battle lines are being drawn between bitter rivals and old foes - the central ruling party Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Punjabi rulers - the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The dust was still settling after the crucial All Parties Conference (APC) but surprisingly, the elder Sharif, playing on the masses’ demonstrations over long hours of load-shedding, rose to the occasion and announced a series of demonstrations - possibly after the failure of the Punjab government to control the damage done by dengue across Punjab, especially in Lahore, the home of the Sharifs, which is slipping fast out of their control and landing in the lap of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf - the brainchild of macho man Imran Khan.
On the other hand, smelling a severe government-bashing move by the PML-N against the prolonged hours of load-shedding across the country, the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) also launched a preemptive rant in the national assembly at the government’s failure to handle the situation which has triggered violent protests in Punjab. However, this tirade soon lost its fire as Haider Abbas Rizvi said on the same evening that his party may return to the treasury benches as soon as peace returned to Karachi. Political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi sees the PML-N outburst against the government as a bid to cash in on the wave of anti-government sentiment and push the government to neutralise the gains made by the government at the APC as well as to overthrow the government’s remaining popularity.
“I think that the PML-N, a bit late, has realised that the PPP-led government has made significant gains with the successful APC. They also want to remove the public impression that the PML-N and the PPP are riding the same boat,” he said, adding that after realising the bitter realities, now the PML-N leadership wanted to neutralise these gains.
“Secondly, the time margin for the PML-N is tightening as the March polls for the Senate are getting nearer and they would do anything to stop the PPP from getting the majority vote in the Senate after a long time. Now they are hell-bent to do anything to avert this achievement. The magnitude of the countrywide protests suggest that they will even be happy if the government is overthrown by the military,” added Rizvi.
He also opposed the view that parliamentary resolutions to reshape the country’s foreign policy were binding on the government.
“Neither the joint resolution by the APC nor the parliamentary resolutions can influence the country’s foreign policy. There is no point to talking about reshaping the foreign policy as the foreign policy has been shaped up by the military. The government only wants to get the support from all smaller and major players of the country to achieve two objectives - to tell the world Pakistan stands united at this critical juncture; and sending a message to every Pakistani to forget everything and gel together against the US’ hegemonic designs,” he said.
When asked whether the APC resolution was a success, Rizvi said every political party agreed on a minimum agenda – “anti-Americanism”. “Whether you are a mullah, democrat or even an atheist, everyone feels that the US is beating about the bush after its failure in Afghan war. So the APC has domestic implications and the resolution would help give a surge to anti-Americanism across the country,” he added.
When questioned whether in his analysis the US might attack Pakistan, Rizvi said that the US would not attack Pakistan but it could increase the drone strikes inside Pakistan. He said it was also a possibility that one or two incidents of air space violations by the US helicopters would occur which would not disrupt the bilateral ties. However, he added, a surgical operation or boots on ground would definitely bring about a total breakdown of these ties which would have negative consequences.
Nevertheless, it is very unfortunate to note that the coalition government leadership conducted so many foreign trips to ‘friendly countries’, spending billions of rupees from the national exchequer, but could not muster the support of friends who could have asked the US not to threaten a country whose people and armed forced had suffered most, whose economy was almost paralysed as people on its streets pondered on why they voted for the so-called democratic leaders who had brought the country to this stage.
On the other hand, the opposition parties are also making mockery of the democracy by playing on popular public sentiment for political gains. It is even more devastating to note that the politicians are happy to overthrow the government even if its costs the country a democratic process.
This is why the man on the street is saying, “The Dictator’s rule was really better- electricity, petrol, sugar, grain- we had everything and there was less of this pillage and looting... why did we vote for these people if all General Musharraf’s policies were to be followed and even the government had to follow what the army thinks is right. Where is the political vision?”
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