PTI tries to win over BNP-M yet again

Govt’s negotiating team also meets GDA delegation as efforts to keep coalition intact continue

ISLAMABAD: Carrying on its efforts to appease disillusioned coalition partners, a negotiating committee of the ruling PTI on Thursday assured the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) that its demands including the recovery of missing persons and development projects in the province would be fulfilled.

The government committee comprising senior PTI leader Jahangir Tareen, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Law Minister Farogh Naseem and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Swati met a BNP-M team headed by Senator Jehanzeb Jamaldini.

The BNP-M has repeatedly expressed its disappointment over the government’s failure to make progress towards the implementation of its six-point agenda it signed with the PTI at the time of the formation of in government in August 2018.

The six points included recovery of missing persons, implementation of the National Action Plan, implementation of six per cent quota for Balochistan in the federal government, immediate repatriation of Afghan refugees and the construction of dams in the province to resolve the acute water crisis.

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However, the ruling PTI has managed to buy more time from its coalition partner each time the latter has threatened to pull out of the alliance.

Earlier in the day, the committee also held a meeting with a delegation of another coalition partner, the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA). The GDA team was led by Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Dr Fahmida Mirza.

After the meeting, Tareen tweeted that the committee had finished a very fruitful discussion with the GDA delegation. “There are no issues outstanding. GDA was, is and will remain a strong ally of PTI in our Coalition Govt. Together we will keep striving to build a new Pakistan,” he wrote.

A day earlier, the government negotiating team met the senior leadership of PML-Q – an important coalition partner of the PTI in the Centre as well as in Punjab – a day after Housing Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema skipped the federal cabinet meeting laying bare the cracks in the ruling coalition.

The PTI has rushed to reassure its political allies after the MQM-P’s articulation of smouldering grievances set off a domino chain reaction with more coalition partners going public with their apparent disillusionment.

The ruling party – which has a slim majority in parliament – understands that the support of its allies is critical for the survival of its coalition government. Perhaps this was the reason, the ruling party quickly swung into action when Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, a MQM-P minister in the cabinet, said he was stepping down.

Though the government was quick to placate the estranged MQM-P, Siddiqui refused to attend Tuesday’s meeting of the cabinet. While he didn’t show up unsurprisingly, the absence of a PML-Q minister was unexpected – and it set off alarm bells.

The negotiating team was formed by Prime Minister Imran Khan to improve working relationship with the government’s allies.