LAHORE, Nov 7: In what may be regarded as a dramatic shift in the party’s earlier stand, PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Husain has proposed the establishment of a government of national consensus.

The idea has been floated, apparently, after the party’s failure to garner enough support to form its government at the centre, notwithstanding party candidate for prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali’s claim that the PML-Q enjoys backing of some 180 MNAs-elect.

People’s Party Parliamentarians Chairman Makhdoom Amin Faheem has been making the same proposal for the last two weeks duly mandated by Ms Benazir Bhutto, although he has also been changing his stance on the subject to save himself from criticism by those averse to the idea.

Such signals from the two parties, which have emerged as the largest and the second largest entities, should be welcomed by all parties in the larger national interest. In the prevailing complex situation when no party is in a position to form its government single-handedly, and efforts to take other parties along, have also failed to bring desired results, cooperation between the PML-Q and the PPP is the only pragmatic approach which can help take the electoral process to its logical conclusion.

True that the two parties will have to make some compromises on their political stands on various issues, these compromises are certainly not more important than national interests. Secondly, if the PPP and the PML-Q can separately establish contact with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to get its support for government formation despite the fact that the ethic organization demands a new constitution as the 1973’s does not meet the requirements of the 1940 resolution, there is nothing wrong with their joining hands.

(The Muttahida had parted ways with the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy when the latter had refused to endorse its demand for a new constitution and provincial autonomy in accordance with the 1940 resolution. The party repeated its point of view when representatives of various parties met the Muttahida leaders with the request for cooperation).

The PPP’s decision to sit with the PML-N in the ARD despite their bitterness of the past manifested a change in the thinking of the parties led by Ms Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif. But it was appreciated by people at large as this depicted a tolerant attitude of the two adversaries. Their joint struggle had mounted pressure on the military regime to hold the elections. Maybe, in the absence of their movement from the ARD’s platform, the military regime had not decided to hold the polls in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict.

Now that the elections have been held and their results have landed the country in an unpredictable quagmire, political forces are required yet again to join hands to find a solution to the problem. Unless this was done, the country could not be placed back on the democratic track. The possible disastrous consequences of the continued political stalemate can’t be foreseen by anyone.

To take the elections to their logical conclusion, the PPP and the PML-Q should give up their adversarial attitude and take the initiative of forming a broad-based government. Such a set-up will rid the country of the future confrontation, which some ARD leaders are adamant on continuing.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Aml and smaller parties should be taken along and a new atmosphere of political harmony be created.

The ARD chief is planning to organize an all-party conference in Islamabad on Nov 10 or 11 to mount pressure on the regime to transfer power to the elected representatives at the earliest. The senior leader is very bitter on the postponement of the National Assembly session for a week. He wants to fight to the last ARD activist (as his own party has no representation on the lower house of parliament).

If the APC is held, a strongly-worded declaration would be issued, which would only add to the bitterness instead of de-escalating it.

The PML-N, whose government was toppled three years ago, would naturally be on the side of the anti-Musharraf forces.

Thus, the leaders of the PPP and the PML-Q are duty-bound to appreciate the gravity of the situation and go extra-mile in finding a solution.

If they show flexibility in their attitude, they would be doing the nation a great favour.

Stubbornness on the part of the parties in the ARD and the Muttahida Majlis-i-Aml will be of little help. Efforts by some leaders to have an anti-Musharraf set-up at the centre would not serve any useful purpose. Such a set-up would not be able to co-exist with the military ruler. As a result, the ARD’s three-year struggle as well the Oct 10 elections would come to a naught.

Pragmatism demands that the leaders of the two major parties should sit down and settle their differences on the presidency of Gen Musharraf and his competence to amend the constitution. Once they reach some consensus, Gen Musharraf can be asked to amend the Legal Framework Order to an extent that it was acceptable to other parties, although so far he has been saying that all steps taken by him were irreversible.

The president can also be persuaded to reciprocate the PPP’s gesture by giving some concessions to Ms Benazir Bhutto and her incarcerated spouse.

In case the political parties and the regime stuck to their respective positions, the new system would not work. The Senate would be dominated by anti-Musharraf forces as a result of which the new government would not be able to have any new constitutional amendment passed, no matter how badly it is needed.