LAHORE: Tahir Ali Javed of PML-Q’s splinter (unification) group suggested to the Punjab government on Sunday to dissolve the provincial assembly, in an apparent bid to force early elections in the country.
The PML-N quickly distanced itself from the proposal and its spokesman Parvaiz Rashid told Dawn that the “party was neither responsible for the suggestion nor considering it as a policy tool. It is the personal view of Tahir Ali Javed and he is entitled to it.”
Talking to Dawn Mr Javed also said that it was his personal opinion and no-one has asked him to present the proposal. But, he added, “It is a perfectly constitutional demand. If a government cannot deliver, we are entitled to demand its replacement through elections. The country is descending into chaos by the day; law and order, unemployment, poverty, oil price, power crisis, everything thing is deteriorating. What else a right-thinking person should do?”
A PML-N insider, however, conceded that it was part of the party’s strategy, which was to be presented after Ramazan and taken to its logical conclusion – quitting the National Assembly and dissolving Punjab Assembly – by December, and force early polls to scuttle the Senate elections in March next year.
The strategy was put on hold as the country’s relations with the US deteriorated, and the PML-N did not want to be accused of adding to confusion and hurting Pakistan and the Americans.
With relations with the US now almost back on track, the PML-N had revived its plans and Mr Javed was the first drop in what the party wants to turn into an incessant rain, the insider said.
The main contours of the three-pronged strategy are: lure parties like the MQM and PML-Q into opposition fold, develop an anti-government consensus and put pressure (protest movement and long march culminating in resignation from the National Assembly and dissolution of Punjab Assembly) to force early elections. The recent sit-in held in front of the presidency was a dress rehearsal and so were PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif’s repeated visits to Sindh.
The compulsion for the PML-N is the Senate elections due in March because it knows that in the current circumstances the PPP will win a majority in the upper house. Once its control over the Senate and the National Assembly is established, the PPP would feel comfortable even calling early elections and the PML-N would be politically seen as “an isolated and ineffective party”.
The PML-N wants to force elections “on its own terms and protect itself as a party affecting the political process”. In its strategy, the Senate elections are crucial to “tip the national political balance”, sources claimed.
Conceding failure, the party insiders admitted that they had so far failed to attract parties – especially the MQM and PML-Q – to the opposition fold. Their importance is more symbolic than numerical; considered as part of the establishment, their movement reflects the “thinking within the establishment”.
The PML-N has not been able to establish that the PPP is “out of favour” or the PML-N “is favoured”. The party feels frustrated because it “decided to go it alone and lost six crucial weeks”.
Therefore, such a politically explosive suggestion coming from a PML-Q dissident serves two purposes: it works a barometer to gauge political reaction, without the PML-N getting the direct blame, the sources said.
If the PML-N wanted to create a ripple in political circles, it has succeeded. Leaders of the PPP and the PML-Q were quick to pounce on Tahir Ali Javed, calling him and his proposal “undemocratic and unconstitutional, aimed at hurting the democratically elected set-up”.
Former federal law minister Babar Awan said: “By putting up such suggestions, the PML-N was trying to run away from elections, but the PPP would not let it do so. The assemblies could only be dissolved through consensus, but not on the whims of certain individuals.”
Punjab Governor Latif Khosa is of the opinion that “if such a summary ever makes to my table, I would deal with it according to the constitution”.
Chaudhry Zahiruddin, the parliamentary leader of PML-Q in the Punjab Assembly, came hard on his former party colleague (Tahir Ali Javed) and said the demand had come from “an undemocratic man, who had first ditched his party and was now out to hurt the system”.
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