Can Shehbaz-Gandapur meeting mend broken trust?

A recent meeting between the prime minister and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister rekindled the hopes that a bitter rivalry between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could finally lead to reconciliation but the experts see little hope in this regard due to the lack of independent decision making in these parties.

Last week, the ice-breaking development came as K-P Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, who belongs to the PTI, held a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – also the president of the PML-N -- and asked him to politically engage with his party’s founder Imran Khan, besides discussing other matters.

Though, the experts wish to see the political elite sitting across the table, instead of quarrelling with each other for tiny gains, they feel that the political parties seem to rely more on the powerful stakeholders than anything else.

“The real situation is somewhat more complex,” Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob said, “some political parties don’t take independent decisions as the dependency culture is chronic.”

Apparently, the Pildat chief was referring to the parties’ habit of waiting for the powerful stakeholders’ signal before they take a step, whether inside or outside the parliament. Time and again, the political parties vow to reduce powerful quarters’ role in the political domain but usually end up seeking their support for moving ahead.

The Pildat chief, who keenly monitors the parliamentary proceedings and keeps an eye on the political developments, noted that for regaining the broken trust, the parties and institutions would require some time to show their genuine interest in settling things. “Even if the party leaders and institutions are willing to reconcile,” Mehboob said, “some cooling off period is required.”

Agreeing that a lack of independent decision making was evident in the political parties, Prof Tahir Naeem Malik of the NUML University said that the Shehbaz-Gandapur interaction could prove to be a thaw in political tensions.

As the office of the chief minister required a constant contact with the prime minister and other federal forums and constitutional bodies, the professor noted, regular contacts could lead to reducing the “heat between the two” sides.

Noting that optics like Shehbaz-Gandapur meeting, followed by a joined press talk by Gandapur and PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal, could frustrate PTI supporters, Prof Malik said maintaining a working relationship was needed by the PTI.

The PTI, he added, had to simultaneously govern a province and continue opposition of the ruling alliance at the Canter. “It is time to abandon the polarisation and anarchic model; its dividends would be for all,” he said.

When asked if the political temperature could go down in the coming days, Malik replied that currently things were not at the “not-negotiable” stage. He said they could reconcile but the onus of taking things forward was more on the government side than the PTI. “The ruling alliance should engage the PTI now after Shehbaz-Gandapur interaction,” he said.

Soon after the Shehbaz-Gandapur contact, President Asif Zardari had lauded the meeting, saying that it was time to begin the process of healing divisions, restoring confidence in democracy and keeping Pakistan above all. He also called for curbing polarisation and “political sectarianism”.

Even before Shehbaz-Gandapur meeting, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had also pointed out that no matter how many resolutions were passed to stop powerful quarters’ interference in the democratic system, the results could not be achieved until politicians start respecting one another and operate within their constitutional domain.

“We should not expect the judiciary and other institutions to work within their constitutional boundaries if we do not respect them ourselves,” he had said on the floor of the National Assembly on the heels of a speech by PkMAP’s chief Mahmood Achakzai’s suggestion that a resolution should be passed to limit interference in the political arena.