ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Friday expelled the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from the Punjab government, raising anew the spectre of political confrontation in the country and threatening to unravel the ruling coalition’s reconciliation agenda.
In order to send the seven PPP ministers packing, the PML-N could first dissolve the provincial cabinet and then reconstitute it with the help of the ‘Unification Bloc’, which comprises dissident lawmakers from the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).
PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif told a news conference that his party made the move because of the federal government’s ‘failure’ to end corruption and improve the economy.
In early January, Sharif had spelled out a 10-point political and economic agenda for the federal government to “steer the country out of crises”.
The demands included fresh investigation into corruption scandals, reduction in non-development spending and establishment of an independent election commission. Sharif had warned that if the federal government failed to implement his agenda, the PPP would be expelled from the coalition government in Punjab.
“We are parting ways, we are bidding goodbye to the PPP today,” Sharif told the news conference on Friday, citing a long list of complaints against the PPP leadership and the federal government. Aside from the agenda, Sharif recounted a number of ‘broken promises and unfulfilled commitments’ made to his party by the PPP leadership since the 2008 elections.
Despite their fierce rivalry, the PPP and the PML-N agreed to bury the hatchet after the 2008 election and became coalition partners both at the centre and in Punjab.
Though their alliance in the central government broke down following a spat over the issue of restoration of dozens of judges sacked by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, their shaky union in Punjab continued. At the news conference Sharif parried questions about snap elections, though his party’s leaders have been saying that they could seek early elections in the country. Sharif said the PML-N would not condone any undemocratic move against the federal government – a reference to the military takeover.
“We have slammed the door on the ‘politics of agencies’ once and for all. We had made it clear that we will not support any undemocratic move when the incumbent government was in deep trouble after its allies had left it. And we reiterate our stance now,” Sharif added.
The PML-N supremo said that he hoped the PPP-led government in the centre would improve its performance in the remaining two years of its constitutional tenure.
However, he did not rule out the option of mid-term election outright. “The demand for mid-term elections is neither illegal nor unconstitutional,” he said.
Sharif voiced hope that the PPP would honour his party’s mandate in Punjab. “We (the PML-N) will play the role of opposition in the centre and expect the same from the PPP in Punjab”.
Asked about his party’s new alliance with the ‘Unification Bloc’ and its repercussions on the future of national politics, Sharif said that the PML-N had nothing to do with the creation of the group. Forty-seven out of 81 PML-Q lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly had made a majority group soon after the general elections due to their differences with their party leadership.
He justified their differences with the PML-Q leaders, saying that these people were “hijacked” by Musharraf and the Chaudhrys of Gujrat after the 1999 military coup and “they have now been recovered from their captivity.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2011.
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this will not do pml,n any good.nawaz sharif was enjoying the status of a politician with principles.congrats to ppp .there is a lot of silver lining in this cloud.