EDITORIAL: It seems political differences between PML-N and PPP which were reportedly bubbling under the surface for months have started to come out at the worst possible time for the ruling coalition.
The fact that PML-N periodically offered cabinet positions at the Centre and in Punjab to mend strained ties and PPP continuously rejected all such sweeteners was enough to show that all was not well in the halls of power.
More recently, however, when Punjab governor, of PPP Sardar Saleem Haider, said very publicly that he would not meet the province’s chief minister, PML-N’s Maryam Nawaz, whatever doubts remained about the growing friction were promptly laid to rest.**
In fact, the split has been evident for months, starting when the CM did not receive nor call upon President Asif Zardari when he visited Lahore earlier in the year.
The disrespect – as PPP saw it – was not just in bad taste, considering they are crucial allies at a very sensitive time, but it was also construed by some circles as unconstitutional; since a chief minister is not just expected but required to welcome the constitutional head of state whenever he visits his/her province.
But it was not so in this case, even though both parties had bent over backwards for months to put their differences aside only to make sure that PTI was not allowed to return to power. So much for optics.
The rumour mill suggests that PML-N was not too pleased with PPP’s public criticism of its handling of the negotiations leading to the IMF bailout programme, not to mention dishonoured promises about fund transfers to Sindh government.
Clearly, the many committees formed to iron out differences failed in their task, prompting President Zardari’s cryptic remark that he knew “how to form and topple governments”; a vivid reference to his personal efforts in knitting together the coalition that achieved the prime goal of sidelining PTI.
Now, with PTI’s agitation paralysing the capital and squeezing the economy, these differences could cost the coalition more than they realise.
And even as the military has been called in to restore calm, pointed statements by members of the two parties are only playing into the hands of the opposition and causing unnecessary anxiety in financial markets. Let there be no mistake, should the situation deteriorate further and harm the economy – it’s already haemorrhaging to the tune of Rs200 billion every day – the IMF programme will be put at risk and the country will face nothing less than the prospect of sovereign default itself.
Surely, the two main coalition partners have more urgent matters to attend to than their own personal disputes and differences that have dominated Pakistani politics for the good part of three decades. Yet even as they pretend to manage a united front, everyone realises that it was only natural for an alliance born out of mutual convenience to stretch at the seams at the slightest provocation.
Politics being the art of the possible, they have often had the good sense to compromise for the greater good – recapturing power in their case – but they have also realised, each time, that it’s near impossible for them to completely overcome their distrust of each other.
One would have expected veteran politicians with decades of experience leading both parties to manage their differences better. Yet now that they have spilled out into the open, their history suggests that this cleavage will only widen and cause yet more unnecessary problems for this country and its people.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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