One must
feel sorry for political parties as they seem to be totally in the
dark on what Musharaf is planning regarding the elections. As
there are so many contradictory messages coming from the
government on every issue under the sun, political parties are
having a hard time deciding on which course to take.
Political parties putting their heads together is always a
positive sign especially in Pakistan's bizarre political culture.
Furthermore, the getting together of parties at election time in
the form of an electoral alliance shows that political parties are
mature enough to accommodate each others differences in order to
secure a common goal. Goings on in the last couple of weeks in the
electoral alliance category have been little short of incredible.
Never before have there been so many apparent possibilities of
electoral alliances.
There seem to be several possible alliances, which each individual
party may be part of. For instance the PPPP is in talks with all
main parties regarding seat adjustments or an electoral alliance,
such as the PML(N), PAT, MMA, JI. The same is the case with PML(Q)
with it in apparent talks with MMA, PAT,PML(N) and others. PAT is
in talks with PML(Q), PPPP, PML(N). MMA is in such talks with
PML(N) and PML(Q). Thus, a very confusing scenario is before
onlookers who are baffled by stories of a particular party being
part of three different possible alliances.
Never before in the history of pre-election scenarios in Pakistan
has there been such an atmosphere of confusion. Political parties
seem to be leaving their options open by engaging into dialogue
with parties from all sides of the political spectrum. The reason
for this seems to be the uncertainty created by the government
with regards to the elections. If the elections are to be in
October then the government is leaving it very late in finalising
all issues relating to electoral reforms, with the amendments
packages not yet being finalised and announced. There are rumors
amongst the main stream political parties that the government has
no intention of holding the elections in October, which is why it
has left every thing so late. Political parties are also crying
foul saying that they are not being given adequate time to
campaign. This may be a deliberate attempt at keeping the
political parties confused as to what will happen, giving them no
time to campaign.
Having come to terms with the situation in hand, political parties
seem to be preparing for the worst. Exactly what is being mustered
up behind the scenes, is anyone's guess, but some incredible
turnarounds are expected to come to the fore front. Seat
adjustments rather than full fledged electoral alliances may be
the order of the day enabling each individual party to attain the
most out of its support in its strongholds. This explains why each
party is engaging in dialogue with every other. Even though an
electoral alliance will in actual fact be an internal process of
seat adjustments between member parties, only the collective
effort of main political parties can be successful. The goal of
the anti government parties, which includes most of the main
parties, is to stop Musharaf from hijacking the political system
by handing the government to his 'illegitimate child', the PML(Q). |
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About
Writer:
Mr. Jawed Iqbal, is an independent writer and a
political analyst. His articles appear in printed and
electronic media of Pakistan
eMail : JAWEDS_WORLD@HOTMAIL.COM |
The anti-government alliance, although not disclosed, a succession
of meetings between the PPPP and PAT has almost let the cat out of
the bag. With two long meetings on successive days between PAT
chairman Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri and PPPP chief Ameen Fahim, followed by
another between Qadri and the PPPP's Khawja Tariq Raheem suggests
both parties are finalising a possible electoral alliance what
ever shape that might take.
With newspaper reports confirming that both parties have agreed on
the number of seats they will be assigning to each other, the
world is probably wondering when the suspense will be put to an
end and an announcement made. Well acting on the principle of
'fighting fire with fire' political parties are also keeping the
government guessing as to what is being planned. With PML(N) also
reportedly joining hands with PPPP in the coming elections, a
mighty three party opposition alliance consisting of the
PPPP,PML(N) and PAT may finally materialise. There have been news
stories in many newspapers to this effect. The only problem is
that there have also been many other stories of the same parties
to be part of many other alliances.
Surprisingly Imran khan dropped his party's strong stance on not
cooperating in any way or form with parties he claims to be
corrupt. His apparent u-turn was the only way forward as far as
the PTI is concerned as every other party is getting the best deal
available to it from every other party which seems to be common
sense politics. Imran has now realised that Pakistani politics is
the name of 'getting what you want no matter how you go about it',
as at the end of the day it is the results which matters. Musharaf
has hijacked the whole of Pakistan's political system, as he has
done with democracy, so political parties should be forgiven for
responding in how they see fit to do so.
This
article published in;
Local Media
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Desperate times require
desperate measures