THE recent announcement of a grand alliance of opposition parties against the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party in Sindh has left many wondering about its real agenda as well as its timing. Except for Sanghar, local government elections have been held across Sindh, and the next general elections are at least two and a half years away. So the question is what caused Pakistan Muslim League-Functional chief Pir Pagara to gather representatives of political and nationalist parties and certain heavyweights at his Karachi home on Sunday and announce an anti-PPP alliance without finalising its name, terms of reference and even component parties?

The Sunday meeting was attended by leaders of the PML-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Sindh United Party, Qaumi Awami Tehreek as well as disgruntled PML-N leaders Mumtaz Bhutto, Ghaus Ali Shah, Liaquat Jatoi, Murtaza Jatoi, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim and disowned PPP leader Dr Zulfikar Mirza who participated in their individual capacity. They chose Pir Pagara as the leader of the grand alliance and decided to form a 16-member committee to finalise the ToRs (terms of reference).

However, the PML-N and the PTI — two of the five opposition parties that have presence in the Sindh Assembly — have linked their participation in the alliance with the approval of their central leadership.

“It is a hotchpotch of arrangements,” says a PML-F insider about the alliance. “They aim to remove the [PPP] government and wish governor’s rule that may enable their rule in Sindh.”

He is, however, not very optimistic about the future of the alliance when he referred to the presence of big names in the 16-member committee. “Look at the heavyweights in the committee tasked to frame the ToRs. They will take 10 days to get together at a time,” he says sarcastically.

The grand alliance reminds one of a similar activity before the 2013 general elections when the same Pir Pagara led a 10-party electoral alliance against the PPP. He had tried to replicate the successful movement of opposition parties against the passage of the Sindh Peoples Local Government Act, 2012 (SPLGA) — the law that introduced a dual LG system in the province and was withdrawn in early 2013 by the PPP government — but ended up in a fiasco.

Perhaps their involvement in the 10-party alliance became a learning experience for Dr Qadir Magsi’s Sindh Tarraqi-pasand Party (STP) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl as, at least for now, they have opted to maintain a distance from the grand alliance.

“We had a bitter experience of the 2013 alliance,” says Dr Magsi. “With four ex-chief ministers in the alliance, there is a serious question mark over their past performance if governance is any yardstick. In a nutshell, it’s a futile exercise.”

He also cast doubts over the alliance’s agenda. “Any alliance formation without a political agenda is just meaningless. And how do they assure people of clean governance if somehow the [PPP] government is ousted and then we don’t concur with their points?”

JUI-F’s Rashid Soomro echoes similar thoughts. He says: “While the 10-party [electoral] alliance was still a grouping of political forces, the present alliance comprises waderas who want to protect their own constituencies in spite of the fact that they lack mass support.”

While the PML-N was represented in the Sunday meeting by its provincial president Ismail Rahu, the presence of disgruntled leaders like Ghaus Ali Shah, Arbab Rahim, Murtaza Jatoi raised eyebrows.

Mr Rahu says he led a six-member party delegation in the meeting but Mr Jatoi, Mr Shah and Dr Rahim were present in individual capacities. “An alliance always comprises political parties and not individuals,” he says, adding: “Once the terms of reference are drafted we will discuss it with the party leadership. The alliance must be led by Pir Pagara, but there has to be a second-tier leadership.”

Ayaz Latif Palijo’s Qaumi Awami Tehreek (QAT) and Jalal Mehmood Shah’s Sindh United Party (SUP) are actively engaged with the Pagara-led alliance.

However, writer Amar Sindhu questions Mr Palijo’s credentials and termed the alliance the handiwork of the establishment in the backdrop of ongoing confrontation of the PPP over the issue of Rangers. “Palijo claims to follow the ideological path, so how does the alliance fit into his [ideology] with people like Liaquat Jatoi and Arbab Ghulam Rahim?” she asks.

Unimpressed by the criticism, Mr Palijo says: “Where were the champions of provincial autonomy on the Rangers issue in the last 26 years? Dr Asim’s arrest has worried them so much they they now advocate provincial autonomy.”

Mr Palijo and Dr Mirza opposed the participation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the single-largest opposition group in the Sindh Assembly, in the alliance. However, PML-F leader Sadruddin Shah says, “Opposition parties can’t let the PPP destroy Sindh.”

The credentials of the PML-F in leading an anti-PPP alliance are also come under criticism.

Abdul Khaliq Junejo, an analyst and head of the Jeay Sindh Mahaz, recalls that “[Pir] Pagara descended from nowhere to hijack the anti-LG system movement [in 2012] that was purely indigenous in colour. The PML-F did not find any fault with the PPP when it was its coalition partner in 2008 and also occupied the office of the leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly.”

“They, the PPP included, are all loyal to the establishment,” he concludes.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2016