ALMOST all parties are in a position to participate in the process of government formation either at the Centre or in the provinces but none of them are fully satisfied and reservations are being expressed in one way or the other due to the highly polarized mandate that people of Pakistan gave to the political parties. This became more visible on Wednesday from the statements and moves of some political leaders and their parties vis-à-vis democratic transition as well as allegations of rigging in the general election.
There is no doubt that Shehbaz Sharif has a track record of delivering and it is because of his hard work and passion for development with speed that the PML(N) is well-entrenched in Punjab. During his tenure as Chief Minister of the largest province, he lived up to the expectations of the people and made Punjab a role model for others. His nomination as candidate for the office of the Prime Minister is, therefore, no surprise but the widespread speculations that Nawaz Sharif was being pushed out of the active politics has unnerved party workers and supporters and that is why Vice President of the party Maryam Nawaz, who is a pick for the office of Chief Minister Punjab, issued a carefully worded statement to allay apprehensions of Nawaz-lovers. She asserted that in the next five years, the PML-N supremo not only plans to actively participate in politics but also aims to supervise government affairs both at the Centre and in Punjab. She argued that Nawaz did not opt to become PM because of lack of clear majority. No doubt, MSN has gone in the background as far as executive offices of the country are concerned but it is understood that he will remain the top decision-maker when it comes to policy formulation and initiation of major policies and moves. Similarly, chief of JUI(F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who was conspicuously absent from the huddle of the PDM leadership at the residence of Ch. Shujaat Hussain on Tuesday, adopted a highly angry tone on Wednesday announcing the decision of his party not to become part of the coalition and instead launch a protest campaign against the outcome of the elections. He threatened that his party would not vote for Shehbaz and sit on the opposition benches. The uneasiness of the Maulana is understandable as his party fared badly both for national and provincial assemblies (except in Balochistan where it performed comparatively well) but this is an issue for other parties as well. PML(N) is poised to form governments at the Centre and in Punjab but some of its leaders attribute unsatisfactory performance of their party, especially in Punjab, to manipulation. PTI-backed independents also emerged as the largest group in the National Assembly and secured two-third majority in KP but opponents attribute this success to rigging and result manipulations. PPP has a comfortable majority in the Sindh Assembly and got an unexpectedly higher number of seats for the National Assembly but its leaders too are talking in terms of rigging in urban Sindh where MQM-P made a dramatic comeback. GDA is also complaining about rigging and Jamaat-e-Islami is on roads to agitate, what it believes, large-scale rigging. In fact, elections have thrown challenges to all parties, especially three major parties – PML(N), PTI and PPP – that would be forming governments at the Centre and in the provinces. While PML(N) has achieved majority in the Punjab Assembly after a number of independents joined the party and might get a free hand to implement its agenda at the provincial level, the same is not the case at the federal level where the party would face problems in delivering due to ground realities and high expectations of the people for relief. PPP and PTI will also get another opportunity to deliver in Sindh and KP respectively and it is but natural that the political parties should compete in performance and delivery so that problems of the people are resolved. Again on Wednesday, the PTI received a shocking response from the JI to its offer of independents joining the JI for the sake of reserved seats. The JI declined the offer presumably because of the decision of the PTI to enter into alliance with another party at the national level. The PTI is also persisting with its old policy of no dialogue or contacts with mainstream parties and instead Latif Khosa threatened they will not allow either democracy or parliament to function. Grievances apart, all parties need to review their strategies and approaches for the sake of political and economic stability of the country as no one would gain from instability and chaos.
