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| September 09, 2006 | Saturday | Sha'aban 15, 1427 |
New political lines being drawn
ISLAMABAD, Sept 8: New political lines are seemingly being drawn with the stalling of endeavours to forge a grand opposition alliance for waging a joint struggle on a one-point agenda of ending the military rule.
It is no more the question of whether a party supports or opposes the women’s rights bill, in fact the bill has itself become a basis of fresh contacts between political forces and the president’s power-brokers, sources said.
A senior MMA leader told Dawn on Friday that a PPP leader had said in his presence that his party had got a fresh offer from the military and had been asked to be ready to replace the present set-up after next year’s elections.
According to senior officials, the government is desperately in search of new allies in view of the turmoil in Balochistan and a wave of anger in the entire country over the killing of Nawab Bugti as well as the way the situation was handled by the government in the aftermath of the tragic incident.
The sources linked the failure of opposition parties to work out a grand opposition alliance to these fresh contacts. They described the non-bailable arrest warrants issued against Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari on Thursday as nothing more than another tactic to put pressure on them to fall in line.
The MMA, on the other hand, has deviated from its hardline stance on the issue of Nawab Bugti and announced that it will resign from assemblies if the women’s rights bill is passed.
Political analysts term this sudden change in MMA’s stance as an indication of new lines of negotiations with the government to upstage other forces and achieve maximum benefits in the future set-up.
This is an indication of the fact that forces which thwarted the move for an opposition alliance also succeeded in diverting the MMA leadership’s anger towards the PPP for its support to the government.
If a team of ulema which will discuss the women’s rights bill with MMA leaders supports the reservations of the religious right, there is fear of a clash between the ruling PML, backed by the PML (Nawaz) and MMA, on one side and the PPP-Parliamentarians, MQM and PPP (Patriots), on the other.
If the MMA deputy parliamentary leader is to be believed, PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto had intervened during a meeting of top opposition leaders held at the residence of PML(N) leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan recently. When leaders of most of the opposition parties had agreed to announce the formation of a grand alliance, PPP-Parliamentarians Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim informed the participants that Benazir Bhutto had instructed him on telephone that the announcement should not be made.
In background interviews, Dawn found opposition leaders surprised by what some of them described as a sudden change in PPP’s attitude on the issue of the opposition alliance, followed by its support to the government on the women’s rights bill.
Some analysts said that the forces which wanted the bill passed before President Musharraf’s high-profile visit to the US were perturbed as the process appeared to be getting delayed by what was described as Chaudhry Shujaat’s hobnobbing with ulema outside the parliament.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afghan Niazi appeared to be pursuing a policy of confrontation with Chaudhry Shujaat when he said he would obey the orders of the leader of the house, the prime minister, and not bother about what the PML chief was saying or doing.
The MQM has already announced that it will not support any effort to amend the draft of the women’s right bill as tabled in the National Assembly.
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