PESHAWAR, Sept 10: As the military regime is about to complete its three years in office, political parties appear to be much more weaker and fraction-ridden than they were before Gen Musharraf took over power on Oct 12, 1999.

Even though the election date is approaching fast, the political parties are still busy putting their houses in order to get ready for the Oct 10 polls.

With these three more years, the country has seen a total of 27 years under the military rule in its 55 years of existence.

Left with little option but to field strong candidates, even the major political parties, despite having support at the grass-root level, are not taking the risk of going solo on the basis of their manifestos.

Rather, in their attempt to get maximum share in the future parliament, they appear to be feeling no qualms about entering into ‘unnatural’ electoral alliances. Manifesto is not their or their voters’ concern.

The electoral cooperation between the yesterday’s foes and today’s friends — the Pakistan People’s Party and PML(N) — is no less surprising than the ‘marriage of convenience’ between the PPP and the Awami National Party (ANP), who have opted to field joint candidates in some of the NWFP districts.

The PML (Q), led by Salim Saifullah in the NWFP, is ready to cooperate with Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao’s PPP, ignoring his political rivalry with the latter.

The ANP and PPP have fielded joint candidates in Peshawar, Mardan and Swat districts but, at the same time, they are also bracing to take on each other in the rest of the 20 districts and one protected tribal area of the Frontier province.

Same is the case with the electoral cooperation between the ANP and PPP (Sherpao).

Both the parties are set to have tough electoral encounter at Charsadda and Nowshera districts, whereas in Dir upper and Dir lower, they are part and parcel of the Dir Qaumi Mahaz — a conglomerate of various political parties, including the ANP, PPP (Sherpao) and PPP (Parliamentarians) jointly trying to block Jamaat-i-Islami’s path.

Notwithstanding a looming confusion and uncertainty about the holding of elections on the appointed date, the upcoming election has introduced a new trend as far as the establishment of electoral alliances are concerned: two parties cooperating in one district and waging an electoral fight against each other in another.

Gone are the days when political parties used to form electoral alliances at the national or, at least, provincial level, on the basis of consensus reached on certain issues, points or against a common foe. Things have changed a lot. As also the political scene, with the two former prime ministers, finding in Gen Musharraf a common enemy, having buried their bitter past.

Similarly, the parties wanting the maximum share in the cake have forgotten the past rivalries and appear to be least bothered about forging electoral alliance at the district level.

This situation has, apparently, brought the supporters and workers of political parties at the crossroads. Party workers and voters have clearly been ignored when these deals were struck, meant primarily to serve the interests of known political families and figures.