A new path

The PPP should be careful; the new deal may help shore up a government but it will polarise a divided party.

The PPP’s law minister has been busy. His meetings with the leadership of the PML-Q, the former ‘arch enemy’, may prove to be the most significant development on the political scene in weeks, with relevance in both the centre and the Punjab. The 52 seats held by the PML-Q in the centre could prove crucial in the coming weeks, offering a possible means to the PPP to keep intact a coalition government currently facing a threat, given the uncertain status of the MQM. We know that in Punjab the idea of a deal with the PML-Q has been floating for years, pursued quietly by Governor Salmaan Taseer, who has held more than one meeting with Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.

Both parties have favoured ‘cooperation’ and a new political order may evolve. This is not an unusual development given the nature of politics in our country. Similar about-turns and side-steps have been seen in the past. These do not fall into line with the idea of principle. Before the February 2008 elections, the PPP and the PML-Q stood across what appeared to be an unbridgeable ravine. From within the PPP, in the weeks before Benazir Bhutto’s December 2007 death at Liaquat Bagh, there had been mention of a possible involvement of Elahi with those who engineered her death. Many in the party are familiar with the hatred that exists between the Bhuttos and the Chaudhries of Gujrat, dating back to animosity between Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Zahoor Elhahi, Pervez Elahi’s father

The PPP should be careful; the new deal may help shore up a government but it will also polarise a party that is already divided. The longer term implications of this should be considered. But it is not hard to see that, for now, keeping the government safe is top priority. The same methods to do so have been used in the past and there continues to be lack of clarity over whether these have strengthened or weakened democracy in our country and in the minds of its people.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2010.