Fearing voter backlash: PML-N likely to reject proposals on US ties

Party leadership debates options, weighs in favour of appeasing its right-wing vote bank.

LAHORE:

Fearing a backlash from  its predominantly right-wing vote bank, the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is likely to reject the recommendations of a multi-party, bicameral parliamentary panel on reconfiguration of relations with the United States.

PML-N’s senior leadership has almost finalised the party stance over the 40-point draft proposals and devised a comprehensive strategy in this regard, sources privy to the development told The Express Tribune.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Parliamentary Committee on National Security had placed its foreign policy recommendations before a joint session of Parliament.

The PML-N sought time till March 26 to study the proposals and consult the party leadership before starting a debate on the proposals.

The government agreed and the session was adjourned.

Nawaz Sharif, who was in London and returned Thursday evening, met selected senior party leaders at his Raiwind residence on Friday and discussed the draft, well-placed sources told The Express Tribune. The party considered all three options – accepting the proposals, rejecting them, or proposing amendments. After much deliberation, sources said, the party decided to reject the draft in Parliament.

Rubber stamp

Nawaz was informed that the government, the army and intelligence agencies are committed to reopening the suspended Nato supply route. Major proposals incorporated in the draft came from the General Headquarters and Aabpara, Nawaz was told.

The presentation of proposals in Parliament is simply to get a stamp of approval from Parliament, the participants were told. Therefore, irrespective of PML-N’s acceptance or rejection, the treasury benches are committed to passing the recommendations in the house, sources quoted the participants as being told.

Political repercussions

If the PML-N supports the treasury benches, either by accepting the draft or proposing amendments and then accepting it, the party risks losing its right-wing vote bank, particularly in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, sources said.

The party leadership was also informed about the activities of other right-wing groups and their vociferous opposition to reopening of Nato supply routes.

Nawaz was also informed that Jamaat-e-Islami’s retired senator, Professor Khurshid, was a member of the parliamentary committee but withdrew his signatures from the recommendations after gauging popular response of his vote bank.

Defending its input

The party leadership also devised a strategy to defend the presence of two of its senators – Ishaq Dar and Sardar Mehtab Khan Abbasi – in the parliamentary committee which drafted the proposals.

Sources said Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, will say that the PML-N senators prepared the draft but did not approve the recommendations, which is Parliament’s job.

The same stance will be reiterated by Nawaz at public gatherings, scheduled to commence after May.  The PML-N leader will brief representatives from United States about the party stance as well.

PML-N’s Deputy General Secretary Ahsan Iqbal, when contacted, said the government wants a cover from Parliament for the resolution.

“Resumption of Nato supply will fuel the Afghan war and Pakistan will have to bear the brunt after US withdraws from the neighbouring country,” he said. The government has been unable to get a surety from the US on the conversion of a war-based economy to a peace-time economy, he said.

Thousands of Afghans employed in the war-based industry, including transport, will flee to Pakistan after the US withdraws, he added.

PML-N’s central joint secretary, Engineer Khurram Dastgeer Khan, said a rejection of the resolution should be expected given the government’s four-year track record. The government disregarded two passed resolutions passed earlier in this regard, he added.

(Read: Analysis - Bring out the bulldozers)

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2012.