ISLAMABAD: A cautious Pakistan Peoples Party may review its stance of supporting the government following the emergence of a controversy over SOS to the army chief by rival parties in the ongoing political crisis.

“The PPP believes that it will be difficult for it to continue supporting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif if it is established that he lied on the floor of the National Assembly by claiming that he had not asked the army to become a mediator,” a senior PPP member said hours after an army spokesman tweeted that the army chief had called the PTI and PAT leadership on the government’s request.

Also read: Parliament watch: Political costs of support to Sharifs weigh PPP down

The PPP member said the episode recalled the confrontation between Mr Sharif and then army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf in 1999 after the Kargil war.

Leaders warn against destruction of democratic institutions

He said PPP leaders were closely watching the developments and likely to review the situation at a meeting after the return of Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari from China in a day or two.

When his attention was drawn to the speech of Leader of the Opposition Khursheed Ahmed Shah in the National Assembly extending support to the prime minister, the PPP leader said Mr Shah made the speech after a clarification by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and before the ISPR director general’s tweet asserting that political parties had sought the army’s mediation.

Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the PPP co-chairman, adopted a cautious approach and said: “It is not necessary to respond to each and every twist and turn in the evolving situation.”

But he said that apparently there were two contradictory statements, one by the prime minister on the floor of the assembly and the other by the ISPR. It will not be right to jump to conclusion and assert who is telling the truth. “Sometimes a statement may be true but it may not reflect the whole truth. We will wait for the whole truth to emerge,” he added.

The PPP leader said Mr Zardari had talked to Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Sirajul Haq over telephone and discussed the situation.

The PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate, Raza Rabbani, said: “My head is down with shame after last night’s development.” He was referring to the meetings of PTI Chairman Imran Khan and PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri with Chief of the Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif.

He regretted that whatever little ground was gained so far by democratic and leftist forces after suffering torture and lashes in jails had now been lost.

Mr Rabbani warned against destruction of democratic institutions as a possible backlash of dragging the army into politics and held the PML-N, PTI and PAT responsible for the present crisis. He said he had started consultations with other opposition parties to requisition a session of the Senate on the issue.

Meanwhile, Farhatullah Babar submitted an adjournment motion to the Senate secretariat for a debate on the controversy arising out of statements by the prime minister and the army spokesman.

Significantly, the SOS call by the government to the army came a day after the publication of an ominous report in a prestigious foreign newspaper, Wall Street Journal. Quoting unnamed government sources, the paper claimed that the military had seized on Mr Sharif’s weakened status during the political crisis to strike a deal in which the civilian leadership would cede control over foreign policy and other important areas to the military, Mr Babar stated in the adjournment motion.

The call to the army, he said, came despite unanimous resolutions adopted by both houses of parliament pledging support for a constitutional resolution of the impasse and vowing not to yield to any unconstitutional demand of protesters.

“The SOS call to the army reportedly made by the prime minister makes a mockery of the parliament and the unanimous resolutions adopted by it,” the motion says. “It signifies the total lack of trust of the prime minister in the parliament which has been supporting him throughout regardless of partisan political considerations.”

Mr Babar drew an analogy between the present crisis and the raid on the hideout of Osama bin Laden in 2011. “It is a huge national embarrassment almost akin to that which the nation suffered after the raid on the Abbottabad hideout of Osama bin Laden.

“Indeed it is a moment of collective disgrace for the nation and more so for the parliament. It opens the possibility of permanent military intervention at the behest of a few thousand armed men and women made to gather mysteriously at the gates of the federal capital.”

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2014