Divided they oppose

What more could the PTI-led government have hoped for? The opposition failed yet again to forge a united front against the government. After failing to agree on a joint candidate in the Prime Minister’s election on August 17, the opposition parties are now fielding two candidates for the presidential election, scheduled for September 4. Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan is the PPP’s nominee while Maulana Fazlur Rahman is backed by all other opposition parties, including the PML-N, the MMA, the ANP, the PkMAP and the NP. While the numbers were already favouring Dr Arif Alvi of the PTI and allies, the division in the opposition ranks means that he will have an easy sailing to the dignified office of the President of Pakistan.

Starting with the PPP’s refusal to vote for PML-N’s Shahbaz Sharif as a joint opposition candidate for the Prime Minister’s election — despite an earlier agreement under which the PML-N had voted for PPP’s Khursheed Shah as joint opposition candidate for Speakership — the so-called grand alliance of no less than 11 opposition parties is in tatters since its formation after the July 25 general election. And now with the two main opposition parties — the PML-N and the PPP — going their separate ways to elect the President, the cracks clearly appear to have widened irreparably.

Should the PPP’s divergent position be viewed in the context of the ongoing money-laundering case against Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur? Well, several senior PML-N leaders have dropped hints during media talks, attesting the viewpoint. If this is really so, the chances of an opposition alliance — let alone a grand one — at least in the near future have been nixed. Good for the government, but certainly not good for the country — given the vital role the opposition is supposed to play in confronting the rulers on their getting off-track. While we have hardly had any good governments since our Independence in 1947, we certainly have had even worse oppositions. This time too, we seem to be going to have more of the same.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2018.

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