LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party campaign to press the PML-N government to accept its four demands, including one on Panamagate, seems to have lost somewhere between the party leadership’s foreign tour and terrorism.

The much-hyped campaign the PPP kicked off on the occasion of Benazir Bhutto’s 9th death anniversary on Dec 27 lost the steam after the party’s Lahore-Faisalabad rally on Jan 19.

Soon after the rally PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari left for the United States where he joined his father, former president Zardari. On their return a couple of days ago Bilawal and Zardari had to only focus on terrorism which has badly hit the country recently.

Bhutto-Zardari had to cancel the party’s Multan public meeting, which was scheduled for March 10 in connection with its demands.

The PPP’s four demands are about passage of the opposition’s bill seeking investigation into the Panamagate issue, appointment of a full-fledged foreign minister, formation of a parliamentary committee on national security and implementation of the resolution passed by a multiparty conference on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor held in May last year.

Party leaders seem to be wavering

Earlier, Bhutto-Zardari had given Dec 27 deadline to the government for the acceptance of his party’s demands otherwise he might go for a long march.

After the departure of Bhutto-Zardari to the US, this issue was thrown on the back burner by the other leadership of the party in the country and even Bhutto-Zaradri did not bother to issue any statement related to it from abroad.

On the other hand, the Nawaz government neither showed any interest in the PPP’s demands either before Dec 27 nor afterwards, sparking speculations that ‘PPP’s move was not a serious one’.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had already cast a doubt on the PPP’s campaign saying it would not go for any agitation or street protest against the PML-N government because they had ‘mukmuka’ (deal) to protect each other’s interests. The PPP is also still struggling to remove the tag of ‘friendly opposition’.

“The leadership had set a goal which did not look easy even in the beginning of the campaign to be achievable. In the absence of the party office-bearers in a number of districts, especially in Punjab, how come the PPP could run a drive against the government,” asked a party leader from Punjab.

He said during the party meetings the leadership was informed about this weakness and suggested it to first complete the party restructuring and announce the office-bearers before venturing any such campaign. “But the leadership has its own logic,” he added.

The PPP leader further said the four demands were aimed primarily at creating a political activity in Punjab, charging its workers and trying to get back the space it conceded to PTI.

“Now we are again back to the square one. The four demands drive has rather appeared a non-serious exercise providing an opportunity to our political opponents to mock at us,” he said.

PPP Information Secretary Chaudhry Manzoor is of the view that the party’s campaign was very much alive and it would soon resume it. “We had planned a March 10 public meeting in connection with our four demands. We have to cancel this because the government is not ready to provide it security,” he said.

When asked when other parties like PML-Q held a workers convention in Mandi Bahauddin despite a terror wave in the country, Mr Manzoor said: “PPP is the only party which has a real time threat from terrorists. Even in the latest video message the terrorists have referred towards us. But let me clarify that terrorism is no excuse of putting off this campaign.”

He said the PPP’s four demands were for the benefit of the country. “Had the government implemented our demand regarding implementation of the National Action Plan in letter and spirit it would have overcome the menace of terrorism,” he said.

PPP’s south Punjab Information Secretary Shaukat Basra said the party had also deferred its Multan rally to express solidarity with the victims of recent terror acts in the country.

He said the PPP would soon resume its campaign to press the government to accept its four demands. “We will hold a series of rallies in the next phase of the drive in Punjab,” Basra said.

Published in Dawn, February 20th , 2017