Ratcheting up confrontation

The opposition has begun ratcheting up its confrontation with the government, stung as it has been by a raft of arrests of its top leaders by the country’s premier graft-buster. Disparate political groups with vastly different agendas and world views are banding together to mount a challenge to a government intent on pushing its foes to the wall. While Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Nawaz Sharif has been in jail for quite some time, the recent arrest of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari has galvanised the two parties and brought them closer. The rare meeting on Sunday between Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz Sharif reflects the mood of the opposition impatient to go after their tormentor in chief. The two young leaders, whose fathers are in the crosshairs of anti-corruption watchdog, discussed various options, including mobilising voters, against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. A statement issued after the meeting said they agreed to carry forward the Charter of Democracy reached between their elders — assassinated PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif — in London back in 2006, when they were in exile during the Musharraf era.

Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto agreed that ‘it would not be in the interest of democracy and rule of law if the PTI government is allowed to continue’. The meeting also decided that other like-minded opposition parties would be approached, and an All Parties Conference would be held later this month, ‘to consider various options to usher in a new government’. Already, the PPP has made contact with a key government ally, Akhtar Mengal, whose votes in the National Assembly could tip the balance either way. Even as these opposition groups are cozying up to each other, special assistant to PM Imran Khan on information, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, made the usual sarcasm-laced comment, saying the meeting between the ‘convicted princess of the House of Sharif’ and the ‘crown prince of the state of Zardaris’ at the Raiwind palace had nothing to do with democracy. The two sides appear to be sharpening the knives and the faint of heart must crouch low.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2019.

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