PPP, PTI breakthrough comes to dead end

ISLAMABAD: A possible breakthrough for cooperation between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the March 5 Senate elections came to a dead end even before the ink was dry.
Just a few hours after the telephonic conversation between Asif Ali Zardari and Imran Khan, generally described as a welcome development to dispense with acute political bitterness, the two sides reverted to their usual exchange of loaded statements against each other.
The PTI fired the first salvo forcing the PPP to retaliate but it still showed a remarkable restraint. The PTI also took on the PPP on the social media. From its official account, it quoted Imran Khan as saying that the PPP remains opposed to open balloting in the Senate polls because it is heavily involved in horse trading along with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).
The PTI chief regretted that his efforts to persuade Zardari to oppose horse trading failed.Given the intent of the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), he said, the PTI will now fight with renewed commitment to expose and defeat those trying to buy their way into the Senate.
Immediately after the conversation between the two leaders, there were claims and counter claims as to who called the other first. Although it is irrelevant and what is relevant is that they talked about an important issue, the fact is that Imran Khan’s Banigala operator phoned the Zardari House for connecting the two. At the time, Zardari was away for a meeting with JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. As he came back to his house, he rang back. Zardari’s close aide Dr Qayyum Somroo claimed that Zardari called back because of two days’ efforts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak.
Zardari’s Spokesman Farhatullah Babar said that the PPP was not ready to support the idea of open ballots for the Senate. Former Prime Minister Raja Pervaz Ashraf was relatively harsh in his reaction to Imran Khan’s attack.
Through his emissary who held talks with Khattak, Zardari had conveyed his desire that the PTI should support his candidate in the Punjab Assembly, but Imran Khan’s squad was not willing to end the boycott of Senate election from this provincial assembly. They also talked about giving second preferences to each other’s nominees from the KP legislature. But the sticking point was the proposed 22nd Constitutional Amendment.
The PTI chief has not even minor working ties with the PPP supremo. Rather, he has harshly bombarded him with harsh statements for umpteen times. Zardari occasionally responded but not very lethally. Considering this kind of relationship, it was unexpected that just one telephonic conversation was going to be productive and result-oriented.
Imran did not realize the consequences. He had not shown some kind of self-control while disparaging Zardari in the past and had not acknowledged that there are no permanent friends or foes in the political arena. It was totally unexpected that a shrewd politician like Zardari would quickly forgive and forget the harangue he faced for months as he received the call from the one who has been lambasting him day in and day out. The way the PTI chief kept slamming the PPP leader left no room for a soft corner by the latter in future. It would have been worthwhile had some groundwork been done before the two spoke.
No doubt, like Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan genuinely wants curbing corruption in the Senate elections, but the call was also out of sheer compulsion in view of credible reports of vote selling and buying in the KP Assembly in which the PTI is being seriously affected.
If any upset took place in the Senate election in the KP legislature meaning that a parliamentary party could not get the seats in proportion to its numerical strength in the provincial assembly, it would be a foregone conclusion that money did the trick. Imran would obviously become more fierce and ferocious if any PTI seat was taken away by any such political party.
Had there been reconciliation between the PPP and PTI that was accepted by some as a result of the telephone call, Zardari would have added something to his numerical strength to pave the way for winning the election of the Senate chairman, an office he wants to clinch at all costs. Since there would be a close fight between the candidates of the PPP and PML-N for this top office, even likely six votes of the PTI, would have mattered a lot.
However, with the government’s categorical announcement to shelve the idea of the 22nd Constitutional Amendment, Zardari’s efforts to garner maximum support of the parliamentary parties having significant representation in the Senate after the March 5 elections have received a jolt. Now, he has nothing to hammer in order to rally these parties around him. While he is working hard eyeing the Senate chief’s slot, the PML-N is yet to launch its campaign to get this slot.
Zardari is unhappy with the prime minister for not conceding a requested Senate seat from Punjab to his nominee, Nadim Afzal Chan. Having a firm control over the Punjab Assembly, the PML-N is going to secure all the eleven seats here.
If the reported massive corruption succeeded in the KP and Balochistan assemblies, a maximum of two or three seats would go to the candidates, who would be investing a lot of money. This will obviously deprive the parties of these seats that actually deserve.