PML-N unlikely to engage PPP

Sources say PM Nawaz Sharif discussed Bilawal’s threat with top aides before deciding to not accept PPP’s demands

ISLAMABAD: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s threats of street agitation have apparently failed to ruffle PML-N’s feathers, triggering fears the political scene will get murkier and nastier in coming days.

The ruling party appears to be in no mood to engage the PPP to dissuade it from launching a protest movement against the government.

“Reconciliation, especially on their [PPP’s] terms, is not an option,” a source in the ruling party told The Express Tribune.



Premier Nawaz Sharif, according to sources, has discussed Bilawal’s threat with his top aides before deciding to not accept the PPP’s demands.

“There is a feeling in the party’s leadership that a minority party cannot coerce a majority party into accepting its demands,” said an insider.

“If we accept their demands in the face of their threat of political confrontation, then it would imply political defeat for us.”

The insider believes that after weathering the storms stirred up by the PTI, the ruling party is much stronger to deal with any political challenge.

“When an opposition party as aggressive and formidable as the PTI has failed to bend us, the PPP should not have any vainglorious expectations,” he said. “Conceding to PPP’s demands would mean a U-turn in our policy; something that would severely dent us politically.”

What are PPP’s demands?

Bilawal has called for (a) reconstitution of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security; (b) appointment of a foreign minister; (c) implementation of resolutions adopted by all-party conference during the PPP tenure; and (d) passage of PPP’s Panama Papers Inquiries Act 2016 from Parliament.

An aide of Premier Nawaz says a broad consensus is possible on all but one demand. “Politically, however, things are different. Debate on whether or not these demands are practicable, they are not acceptable in the very first place and the reason is obvious,” the aide said.



Of late, the government has considered appointing a foreign minister. Likewise, it does not have any issues with the reconstitution of parliamentary panel on national security and allaying the concerns of the provinces on CPEC.

Initially, the PML-N was amenable to negotiations on PPP’s demands, but after Bilawal set the December 27 deadline and Khursheed Shah demanded the PM’s resignation, the ruling party changed its mind. “Hostility begets hostility,” a PML-N leader said.

PM’s Adviser Amir Muqam says the PML-N never interfered in administrative issues when the PPP was in power at the Centre.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2016.