PML-N convinced allies will remain allies

Ministerial team not mandated to establish backdoor contacts with PTI

ISLAMABAD: A ministerial committee the prime minister has cobbled together to muster support of parliamentary parties against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Islamabad lockdown plan is a ‘cosmetic exercise’, as the government doesn’t expect a radical change of mind from any party, The Express Tribune has learnt from sources in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.



Sources said Nawaz Sharif formed the three-member panel on Friday to give an impression that the government is conferring with all parliamentary parties in the face of a political crisis that might ensue from PTI’s protest on November 2.

The committee, comprising Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and Ports and Shipping Minister Hasil Bizenjo, is not mandated to establish backdoor contacts with Imran Khan’s party, sources added.

In this scenario, the panel is unlikely to make any difference. “Political fault-lines have deepened. You have a ruling camp and an opposition camp. One has to be a part of either of the two camps. In such a situation, there is not much the panel can do,” a PML-N stalwart told The Express Tribune.

“Panel or no panel, allies will remain allies and foes will remain foes. The PTI has taken a solo flight and it is unmoved by criticism. The most we can do is to persuade other parties against joining hands with Imran,” he added.

Critics believe the government strategy might prove counterproductive as the PTI could construe it as a move by the PML-N to isolate them. “When there is no possibility of backdoor contacts, hostilities are bound to escalate,” one source said.

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Informed circles believe the ministerial committee has ceremonial importance, nevertheless. “Such measures carry symbolic value,” said a PML-N central office-bearer. “We do not want parliamentary parties to complain that they have not been consulted on how to deal with the PTI sit-in,” he said requesting not to be identified.

Sources say the ruling party doesn’t expect any change in the policy of major political forces – including the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl and Jamaat-e-Islami – based on who they had sided with during the 2014 marathon dharna of PTI.

“The PPP is the main opposition party but it doesn’t support PTI’s protest plan. The JUI-F will side with us. The JI is more inclined towards the PTI. Similarly, we know the PML-Q will never support us,” said a source in the PML-N. “In this situation, the role of smaller parliamentary parties becomes crucial. The ministerial panel’s job will be to win over these parties by giving them assurances that their demands on certain issues will be met.”

PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi says his party doesn’t believe in backdoor negotiations.

“Backdoor contacts in disregard to politics of principles are the product of political compromises between the PPP and the PML-N for petty political gains to mutually benefit one another at the cost of national interest,” he told The Express Tribune. “For us, there is no such thing as backdoor negotiations. Whatever we do or will do will be for everyone to see.”

The prime minister’s adviser Ameer Muqam believes the PTI is facing political isolation for their ‘antics’. “We don’t need to reach out to other political parties to isolate them [PTI]. The three-member committee has been set up to take all parliamentary political parties onboard in order to respond to the coercive methods of Imran Khan and his party.”



Over in Lahore, Premier Nawaz held a consultative session with his top aides. “It’s irrational and illogical to shut down the federal capital while the Supreme Court has already admitted petitions on Panama Papers for hearing,” he said at the meeting.

The session was convened at the Governor House to review the emerging political situation and to devise strategies to deal with it.

Attendees included Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and State Minister Abid Sher Ali. Participants decided that nobody would be allowed to paralyse the state machinery.

Dar called the Nov 2 protest ‘unconstitutional and illegal’. “The PTI is frustrated because it could see an imminent defeat in the 2018 elections.

Asif said democracy would emerge victorious on November 2, and ‘politics of agitation’ would have to face a defeat. “Imran Khan has been badly defeated politically, but he failed to learn the art of politics,” he said and predicted that the Pakistan Awami Tehreek would stay aloof from the PTI dharna.

Iqbal concurred with his cabinet colleagues. “Islamabad will not be shut down but the nation will see the end of PTI’s politics on November 2,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2016.