The tripartite alliance of Awami National Party, Pakistan Peoples Party and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has failed to survive and vanished even before the next general elections.

The alliance was formed before 2015 local government elections by the three main opposition parties in the province to counter activities of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and manage to field consensus candidates in every election to ensure their success.

Some senior people of these opposition parties had spent a lot of time and resources to bring their workers closer so they could work together in election campaigns and make sure success of their joint candidates. The alliance was formed from district to the provincial level and all the offices, mainly of provincial president, were given on rotation basis to avoid differences.

The top leadership also supported the process and had directed the workers to maintain the alliance despite differences and thus they did so on many occasions. On some seats in by-elections, the alliance succeeded in some areas by giving tough time to the ruling clique, but the formula failed to yield any positive result in the long run.

The alliance failed to continue mainly because of lack of commitment on part of the local leaders in different districts. The cracks in it had started appearing during initial stages of 2015 local government elections, even on the level of union councils, but the rifts widened when the process of nominations for district nazims started.

The last nail in the alliance’s coffin was fixed when all the allies fielded their candidates independently in the by-elections on PK-8 Peshawar in May 2016. This seat had fallen vacant due to the death of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPA Arbab Akbar Hayat Khan. The JUI-F and PPP also had sizeable voters in PK-8 and thus they did not agree to field a joint candidate and as a result the by-election was won by PML-N’s Arbab Waseem.

The PPP and ANP were coalition partners in the previous provincial government, but their workers, particularly those belonging to the former, describe it a bitter experience rather very insulting for them as the ANP ministers never bothered to give them time and resolve their issues.

“It was a very harsh experience for our workers, as our own ministers also neglected the party people and focused only on accumulation of wealth,” Syed Ayub Shah, a senior leader of PPP, told Dawn.

About the tripartite alliance, he said that every party had personal interests, priorities and political agenda and in case of inconvenience with allies the alliances could not remain intact for a long time. The tripartite alliance, he said, was not in favour of PPP because there was lack of harmony among the workers who could not go together in campaigns and other political activities.

“I think the PPP’s alliance with ANP was unnatural as both have separate manifestoes and similar constituencies, mainly in Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda and Nowshera and they cannot surrender seats to each other,” he said.

The PPP leader said that in power politics it was always very difficult for a party to work on a specified agenda or to follow an ideology, while in government one would have to extend cooperation to the partners for the sake of powers even at the cost of workers’ interests. He said that PPP workers always felt very uneasy with ANP and that was why they parted ways, adding that if the reorganisation process was completed in a befitting manner his party was in a position to contest the coming elections on its own.

JUI-F provincial secretary information Maulana Abdul Jalil Jan said that the tripartite alliance broke due to lack of understanding and poor contacts among the leaders of the component parties. He said that in many districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the alliance had succeeded to achieve its goal by defeating candidates of the ruling clique in nazims elections, especially in southern districts, Buner, Swat, etc.

However, the differences among the workers had caused the split because PPP people did not vote for JUI-F candidates in many constituencies and served their own interests. “It can be described as immature alliance because the parties needed to come closer after the 2015 local government elections so that they could contest the 2018 general elections,” he observed.

He said that the JUI-F workers were witness to the fact that PPP activists did not support them, but on the other hand JUI fulfilled its commitment with the allies by voting for their candidates openly.

Maulana Jan admitted that the workers had a difference of opinion and they could not be forced to support a particular person. He recalled that JUI-F had fully supported PPP candidates in by-elections in Chitral and Upper Dir who won their provincial assembly seats with a clear majority.

The PPP workers, he said, made it a matter of ego when asked to support JUI-F candidate in the by-elections in PK-8, Peshawar. He said that JUI-F nominee Asif Iqbal Daudzai was runner-up in 2013 elections (on the seat) and could have won it easily even if ANP had extended support.

About the future possibilities, Maulana Jan said that there were visible chances that ANP and JUI-F would come closer in future elections. He said that JUI-F’s alliance with PML-N seemed difficult because his party was not ready to offer seats to it.

ANP central general secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain, who served the tripartite alliance as its last president, told Dawn that the problems among the partners started in his absence when he was abroad.

The alliance, he said, was not formally broken but its acting president Maulana Shujaul Mulk of JUI-F could not pay it due attention and as a result the awkward situation was created. He said that differences among the workers were not a new thing, but the leadership was supposed to resolve issues timely. He said that the alliance had played its role effectively in the local government elections and this could happen again if the parties so wished in future.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2016