First it looked out of character of our traditional politics when the PPP MNAs sat attentive and disciplined through President Mamnoon Hussain’s address to the joint session of the parliament, even though its senators boycotted the address to express resentment of the opposition-dominated Senate against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ignoring the upper house of parliament.
But then some observers recalled that ‘friendly opposition’ has been in play for quite a few years.
That taunt – ‘Friendly opposition’ – used to haunt Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif when his PML-N party was in the opposition and the PPP, in power. Now it looks to be the turn of the PPP to play soft on the party, which used to be its archrival.
So the mantle of combative politics has passed on to the newest entrant in the game – PTI, the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf of Imran Khan.
Politics without animosity is welcome, but what lay behind it? Evidently a common fear. When the PML-N leadership perceived threats from the military establishment, and PTI’s anti-government rallies, in the recent past, senior PPP leaders provided the headlines ‘PPP is against politics which may lead to the derailment of the current democratic dispensation’ and ‘PPP will stand by Nawaz Sharif if anti-democratic forces tried to disrupt his government’.
Even before the tensions erupted in the open, bonhomie between the PML-N and the PPP was perceptible, occasional exchange of vitriolic attacks by the party leaders notwithstanding.
Many in the PPP point to their leadership when asked why the party had been losing its pitch of the main opposition. According to one of them, who used to be in the inner circle of the PPP, the policy of reconciliation that party boss Asif Ali Zardari pursued during 2008-2013 continues to loom large within the party.
“His choice of non-confrontational politics may have been a good strategy in some ways, but what about the PPP’s left-leaning, anti-capitalist philosophy that made it popular and survive against all odds,” he asked.
Historically, the PPP has proven more effective in politics when in opposition than when in power. Now, the PTI has been trying to take upon the role of effective opposition.
“Whether on instructions from the PPP leadership or on his own, Syed Khursheed Shah has been playing it soft,” moaned a sitting PPP MNA. “His role as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly leaves much to be desired.”
What irked him was that “Shah Sahib failed even to raise pertinent questions, for example on the government’s loan spree, multi-billion rupees metro bus projects and, most importantly to talk about prevailing civil-military relations in the country”.
The only issue the leader of opposition spoke forcefully about was the imminent sacking of the government employees who were made permanent during the PPP time apparently in a wrong manner. Syed Khursheed Shah has threatened to go on hunger strike, in case the PML-N government sacked them.
On the other hand, critics of the PPP leadership feel the PTI was fast filling the space lost by the PPP. Though not all the electoral reforms that PTI demands are justified, Imran Khan at least agitated a legitimate national issue and won support for it, they say.
“Even we in the PPP endorse PTI’s stand that the prevailing electoral process is faulty and needs to be reformed,” one party critic said.
What to say of taking the government head on, the PPP looks non-serious in putting its own house in order. It was virtually banished from Punjab in the 2013 general elections when the electorate returned only two PPP MNAs from the most weighty province in national politics. But the PPP leadership is yet to initiate re-organisation of the party in the province it had announced in the aftermath of the debacle.
“It seems our leadership is content enough to be ruling Sindh, ignoring the changing political dynamics in the rest of the country. Come 2018 general elections and the PPP may find itself in a precarious situation in Sindh too,” warned a PPP lawmaker.
Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2014
