ISLAMABAD: PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif is hosting a dinner on Monday (today) in an attempt to revive the opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance, but the huddle is unlikely to make a breakthrough because of differences among the constituent parties.

Political observers expect that the event will turn out to be an open field for the mainstream parties to exchange accusations and hold each other responsible for the failure of the movement that was launched to topple the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government.

Background conversation with leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) suggests the alliance will not last long.

The PPP is likely to become a punching bag at the meeting and face thorny questions like why it has virtually parted ways with the PDM and remained reluctant to stage a long march against the government and why it refused to resign from the assemblies.

PPP is expected to face questions over its reluctance to join long march, resign from assemblies

“We are meeting with the PPP in the dinner but our wounds are deep and they will not heal so early,” said a source in PML-N.

PPP leader Farhatullah Babar said the party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had been invited to the dinner and he was returning from Dubai on Sunday night.

However, Mr Bhutto-Zardari may not attend the dinner and is expected to send a delegation of his party to the event, according to sources.

If Mr Bhutto-Zardari does not attend the dinner, it will futher widen the breach in the alliance.

The PDM was formed in September 2020 and it held large rallies in major cities of the country. It had planned to march on Islamabad in January or February this year, but shelved the plan because of the PPP’s “poor response” to the proposal.

Two major parties in the PDM — the PML-N and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl — believe that the PPP has ditched the opposition alliance by deviating from the main objective of the PDM as it was reluctant to take “aggressive” steps against the government.

Sources in the PML-N said Mr Bhutto-Zardari would definitely attend the dinner as despite being reluctant to cause serious harm to the government, the PPP would want to stand with N-League to remain “alive in Punjab”.

“In recent by-elections in Punjab, PPP has seen where it stands in the province.

Another leader of PML-N said his party had shown large-heartedness by giving the stage of crowded public meetings in Punjab to Mr Bhutto-Zardari, over which several PML-N leaders and workers were annoyed.

Differences between the PML-N and the PPP came to fore when former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as a PPP candidate won the election for the post of leader of opposition in the Senate. The PML-N accused the PPP of obtaining votes of lawmakers of the Balochistan Awami Party, which is an ally of the ruling PTI.

The issue of “alliance of some opposition parties with the PTI” for Senate’s elections in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will also be discussed at the dinner. “If we (PDM) have joined our hands to rid the country of this incapable government, then why opposition parties made poll adjustment with the PTI. This will also be asked in Monday’s meeting,” said a PDM leader.

An insider in the PML-N said Shehbaz Sharif would present the PDM’s future line of action before the constituent parties that will include a strategy on resisting passage of coming federal budget in the parliament.

A source in the PPP said Mr Bhutto-Zardari had logical reasons as to why the PPP did not agree with some decisions of the PDM and if he attended the dinner, he would definitely answer each and every question of other parties in the PDM.

The PPP, he said, had opposed the PDM’s decision of resignation from assemblies because the leadership wanted to fight the government while keeping the party within the system, otherwise the PTI would have an open field to do what it wanted.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2021