Ten-point agenda: PML-N rhetoric heats up

PML-N leaders seem to be gearing up for the next big political fight with the PPP.

Balancing their opposition to the PPP-led administration with the support for democratic governance, leaders from the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) seemed to be gearing up for the next big political fight with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

“We will motivate the masses for peaceful revolution in streets, mohallahs and villages across the country,” said PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif on Monday in a meeting with party workers belonging to Gujranwala and Rawalpindi divisions.

Sources in the party told The Express Tribune that Sharif, while addressing the participants, used strong language against President Zardari and asked the supporters to recall PML-N’s long march which forced the president to restore ousted judges.

Ahsan Iqbal, the party’s information secretary, said that while the country as a whole was moving in the right direction – with improving rule of law, an independent judiciary and media and a vibrant civil society – the PPP-led government was not delivering on its promises to lead the nation towards economic stability.

Member National Assembly Saad Rafique said that the PML-N will not use any underhanded tactics in Punjab. “Neither Punjab nor Sindh/Karachi are considered to be no-go areas for any political party,” he said, adding that his party will devise a strategy on how to steer the county out of the crises.

So far the PML-N has not taken any drastic measures, though some PML-N leaders have talked about the possibility of expelling the PPP from the ruling coalition in Punjab. The PML-N can govern without any coalition allied in the province.

For its part, the PPP leadership seems to have kept up its end of the war of words. Babar Awan, federal minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, on Monday accused the PML-N of trying to bribe PPP legislators in the Punjab Assembly to switch parties.

Awan refuted the suggestion that the government had taken no action on the PML-N’s proposals but bristled at the threats of ouster from the provincial government.

“A single party cannot decide the entire country’s fate,” said Awan, adding that the PPP neither gives nor accepts deadlines on matters of national importance.

According to Awan, the PPP does not have any plans of pre-emptively withdrawing from the Punjab cabinet.

“We believe in politics of federation, reconciliation and that is why we will not leave the provincial government,” said Awan.

WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING FROM APP

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2011.