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| August 27, 2002 | Tuesday | Jamadi-us-Saani 17,1423 |
PPP, PML-N reluctant to make adjustments
LAHORE, Aug 26: Despite their commitment to defeat the pro-establishment candidates in the October general elections, arch rivals People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the PML-N, which are allies on the platform of the ARD, are rather reluctant to make immediate electoral adjustments with each other as they first want to ascertain the possible reaction of their respective voters to an initiative they had not even thought of in the past.
The PML-QA, however, will celebrate the cooperation between the parties of the former prime ministers as it believes that their cooperation will benefit what is being projected as “King’s Party”.
So far, opinion of the PPP and the PML-N leaders on the outcome of the mutual cooperation is divided.
Some PPP leaders think that the pro-Bhutto voters are fully united and would go by the party instructions, no matter whether they like them or not. This means the leadership does not expect a negative reaction from its supporters in case it decides to join hands with the PML-N, a party which has been holding the PPP responsible for the break-up of the country and whose leaders have been using very derogatory language against the PPP.
“It’s necessary that all anti-regime forces have as less friction as possible. To that extent, our voters will accept the PML-N”, a central PPP leader said while talking to Dawn.
Some PPP leaders are of the view that in case the PML-N and the PML-QA keep their candidates in the field, the party of Ms Benazir Bhutto would benefit as the anti-Bhutto vote would be divided.
A leader who requested anonymity said that adjustments with the PML-N would be made at local levels and “there is really nothing (under consideration) at the main party level”.
“There is some probing talk. Adjustments, if at all decided, will be possible by the time of withdrawals”.
It is said that the PPP may support the PML-N candidates where it thinks its own candidates are weak, unlikely to win.
On the other hand, the PML-N thinks that it will have to work very hard to convince its supporters to join hands with the PPP to be able to defeat the PML-QA candidates.
An important party leader said on Monday that many party workers might revolt when they would be asked to cooperate with the PPP as they have not been able to forget the allegations the party leaders have been making against the Bhuttos and others in that party.
One leader said that 20 per cent of its votebank comprised ideologically committed people, while 40 per cent supporters were anti-PPP in their thinking vote. According to him, the remaining 20 per cent supporters were with the party because of their love for Mian Nawaz Sharif.
In case the party decides to cooperate with the PPP, the anti-Bhutto voter might get angry as a result of which the party may lose considerable popular support, he apprehended.
He said it was not possible for the party to give an open call to its supporters to join hands with the PPP. Where necessary, leaders would be told to cooperate with the PPP at the local level, he said.
In his opinion the best way to defeat the PML-QA contestants was that both the PPP and the PML-N should have their candidates in each constituency. He argued that the triangular fight would divide the rightist vote, benefiting the PPP.
He said his party would prefer to see the PPP victorious against the PML-QA people who, he alleged, had betrayed the Sharifs.
The PML-QA has quite a different point of view. It thinks that the PML votebank belongs to the party and not any individual. It believes that the PPP-PML-N cooperation would benefit the PML-QA. This party believes that the myth of Mian Nawaz Sharif’s votebank stood exploded in the local elections which the PML-QA had swept despite the fact that the PML-N had joined hands with the PPP and the Jamaat-i-Islami.
Mian Azhar declared on Monday that in the election campaign his party would target the PPP which had first caused the dismemberment of the country and then proposed a confederation between Pakistan and India, with both countries having one president and one currency.
The party’s election strategy was finalized at a meeting in which many important party leaders participated.
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