Internal politics: Opposition still hopes to bring the govt down

PML-N has yet to elect office bearers for provincial bodies.

ISLAMABAD:

The country’s largest opposition party has been hoping to dislodge the government through public agitation, but it appears unable to get its own house in order.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is struggling to build consensus among its divided ranks to elect office-bearers for provincial bodies, delaying an already-lingering reorganisation the party started back in 2009.

The party elected its central leaders almost three months ago, including the formal comeback of former premier Nawaz Sharif as party president, for the first time since he went into exile to Saudi Arabia in 2000.

Perpetual delays

The delay in electing provincial office-bearers is due to differences in Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), a high-ranking party official told The Express Tribune. The party is facing an ethnic and lingual divide in those provinces, he added.“We are trying to iron out these differences and hope there will be headway soon,” said MNA Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan, the party’s newly-elected deputy information secretary.

Khurram said the elections for provincial office-bearers were expected in November, but did not give any specific date.

He attributed the delay to party chief Nawaz Sharif’s tight schedule in recent months, but did admit that a Sindhi-Mohajir divide in Sindh and a Pakhtun versus non-Pakhtun divide in K-P was also a reason. Earlier this year on July 27, after electing its central leaders, the PML-N announced it would complete its reorganisation within weeks. One event after another including Ramazan and floods in Sindh, however, were cited as cause for delay.

With Nawaz on a week-long trip to Turkey and Eid in the second week of November, the party’s provincial elections may not be held anytime soon.

“I don’t think it is possible before the end of next month,” said Dastgir.

Inside struggle

Some party insiders, however, say the major reason for delay is the tough competition among aspirants for the top slots.

In Sindh, for instance, insiders say Ghous Ali Shah wanted to be nominated for the slot of provincial president but Sharif ‘convinced’ him to accept a portfolio at the centre, much to his annoyance.

Khurram said party officials in Karachi, a city with a predominant Urdu-speaking Mohajir community, were not ready to accept someone from rural Sindh for the top slot.

Some party officials added that a group was lobbying for Mamnoon Hussain from Karachi for the provincial president’s slot.

Similarly in K-P, members of party’s councils at tehsil and district levels are divided between Pakhtuns and Hindko-speaking Hazarewals, who are opposed to each other.

Khurram, however, believed that these hurdles would be over once Nawaz returns to the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2011.