PPP was damaged by PTI not PML-N

Islamabad

The authors of the Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the opposition parties were so overwhelmed with seeking “inquiry” against Nawaz Sharif that they wrote the words of the prime minister and his family for at least 14 times in the draft, divulging their actual goal.

From the opposition’s point of view, the premier certainly deserves so much stress and accent, considering his official position, but the ToRs were required to look all-inclusive and somewhat objective and impersonal. Most importantly, the end needed to be across the board accountability.

While the writers of these ToRs laid excessive emphasis on the premier, they ignored the fact that his name doesn’t appear in the offshore companies, unveiled by the Panama Papers leaks. This fact has also been clarified by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on a complaint filed by the ruling party lawmaker, Daniyal Aziz. Thus, it had admitted its “editing error” of including the premier’s name in the offshore shells.

Although Nawaz Sharif has publicly volunteered that he is willing for his accountability by the inquiry commission before all and sundry, it is not ruled out that he may take the stand before this judicial forum that he can’t be quizzed and is not liable to any investigation since his name doesn’t figure in the Panama leaks or anywhere else as an owner or beneficiary of any offshore company.

If the prime minister takes this stand by giving an affidavit to the effect, a natural question that crops up is that what will then happen to the ‘investigation’ by the commission against him.

The 650-word ToRs sent by the federal government to Supreme Court Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali for the inquiry commission to be constituted by him are just one-third of the opposition parties’ terms, spanning 1710 words, in length. Thus, the opposition wanted not to leave any loophole.

While drafting the ToRs, a conscious and concerted effort was made that no escape route was left for the real target – Nawaz Sharif – to go scot-free, without realizing that he didn’t own any offshore shell.

However, deep flaws and shortcomings in the ToRs apart, it is a great happening that the opposition parties including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) prepared the consensus document for the first time under the leadership of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, who virtually led the show, overshadowing all others.

For a change, the PTI gave up its usual solo flight and went along with other opposition parties in the hope that this unity may put more pressure on the prime minister. It reached this determination only after its bitter experience that it tasted during its sit-in when it stood all alone, and all the other political forces were not only against it but confronted it bitterly, nailing its protest.

The PTI, though an important partner, is just one component of this loose alliance of the opposition parties where it can’t take any independent decision and has to go along with others if it wants to maintain unity among them.

The primary reason behind the PTI’s change of policy is that it apparently feels that since it has failed to dislodge the government through its own movement, it thought it appropriate to work for the same goal in conjunction with other political forces.

Now, it is leader of opposition Syed Khurshid Shah, who is heading the opposition squad as he is the one who is writing the letter to the prime minister and sending a copy of the ToRs to him. His decision was accepted by all the opposition leaders.

In this crisis, the PPP has its own objectives to achieve. It is a different story whether or not it has been able to accomplish anyone of them. However, what it has quickly clinched is that it has neutralized the every-attacking PTI. A party, which had been dubbing it as a gang of looters and plunderers for years and a perennial deal-maker with the PML-N, has been silenced in this sense.

In the larger context, the PPP wishes its revival to come out of its highly dismal public standing in which it plunged in the 2013 general elections after its five-year rule under Asif Zardari’s leadership. Its hard-line has been pushed by some leaders of the Punjab chapter of the party specifically Qamar Zaman Kaira, Aitzaz Ahsan, Afzal Nadeem Chan and some others. However, the Sindh chapter doesn’t agree with this lot.

However, a fact that these leaders have consistently ignored is that it is the PTI, and not the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which damaged it electorally, particularly in Punjab. In Sindh, it is a different ball-game as the PPP continues to keep its grip. The key to the PPP’s revival is in taking on the PTI to retrieve its vote-bank. Its locking of horns with the PML-N will be hardly helpful.