PML-N govt baulks at concessions to PPP

ISLAMABAD: Though the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz knows it needs the opposition’s support for extending the tenure of military courts, it is unwilling to offer any concessions to the PPP, despite its aggressive posturing.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari recently led an ‘anti-government’ rally from Lahore to Faisalabad in a bid to challenge the ruling party in its power bastion of Punjab.

The opposition parties – led by the PPP – have also moved a privilege motion in parliament against the prime minister for ‘not speaking the truth’ in the National Assembly in connection with the Panamagate issue.

However, the PPP’s move to up the ante against the PML-N hardly seems to have had an effect on the PML-N, which is not going to hold out an olive branch to the opposition party, it is learnt.



Background discussions with informed quarters suggest the PML-N leadership sees the PPP’s revived opposition to federal government as linked to Karachi, where an ongoing Rangers-led surgical operation against terrorists and criminal elements has been a cause of concern for the PPP-led Sindh government.

A PML-N leader said the PPP’s anti-government campaign aims at drawing concessions in Karachi.

“The PPP’s four demands are a ruse. The real problem is Karachi. They think by pressurising us they can extract some mileage. They can’t be more wrong,” he said on condition of anonymity.

He said the security establishment’s avowed resolve not to compromise on bringing peace in Karachi and to break the linkage between the terrorists and criminal networks implies that there can hardly be any backtracking on the issue.

Another source, who is also in the race for the slot of Sindh governor, said the PPP leadership was cognisant of the federal government’s limitations in Karachi.

He said the PPP’s newfound animosity against the PML-N government is also linked to the political embarrassment the PPP had to face lately after the PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s return to Pakistan and the PPP failed to announce any tangible protest campaign at its much-hyped Dec 27 rally.

“There was this impression that the heavens would fall if we did not give in to their four demands by Dec 27. Nothing happened. So, for them, something needs to be done to balance the equation — for some sort of face-saving,” he added.



Meanwhile, contrary to the general perception, the PPP also did not oppose extension in the military courts’ tenure during the two rounds of negotiations with the government’s side, facilitated by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

“All the political statements apart, they realise the gravity of the situation. Their leadership knows it fully well that there’s not much politics to do on the issue of military courts and Karachi. The anti-government prospects and all that—this is for their own survival to keep them politically relevant,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2017.