Another APC

The PML-N and the PPP are making yet another attempt to forge an anti-government alliance and lead a movement to “get rid of this incompetent government”. The two parties have, at a presser on Monday, decided to call an all parties’ conference (APC) after Eid-ul-Azha to discuss strategies to send the government packing. This is the umpteenth time that the opposition parties are trying to join forces against the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI. But each time they dispersed even before embarking on their “mission”.

Opposition has been a divided house ever since the PTI-led government has come into power, in August 2018. The split within the opposition was visible when the PPP refused to vote for PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif as a joint opposition candidate for the Prime Minister’s election. And then the two main opposition parties also went their separate ways to elect the President. Five months on — in January 2019 to be exact — the opposition parties attempted to revive the Chartered of Democracy originally signed between Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto in 2006, in what was to be a movement against the government. The bigwigs from the two sides as well as from JUI-F and ANF met in much fanfare, but the movement turned out to be a non-starter.

In October 2019, there was yet another attempt to topple the government — a serious one this time. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman led an anti-government march. Starting off from Karachi, Fazl’s caravan passed through Sindh and Punjab and finally reached Islamabad where his followers and supporters camped out a little away from the Parliament House for days, demanding Prime Minister Imran’s resignation. Fazl’s “war” against the government was, however, not supported by the PPP and the PML-N the way he wanted. The protest ended quite abruptly without harming the ruling party even though the maulana claimed a “secret” victory that was to be known to all at the “right” time.

While there is a big question mark on whether a new APC can transform into a grand anti-government alliance, the possibility of something of a concern for the government has emerged — just because the government itself is on week footings in terms of its performance.

­Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2020.

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