PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) have been involved in a love-hate relationship.
Twice in the last four years, the two parties have made and broken alliances. Periods of love was followed by expression of hate. It seems they would go into the next general election as rivals rather than allies.
On both occasions, the PTI being the senior partner with more seats in the provincial assembly invited the QWP to join its coalition government. Also, on both occasions the PTI expelled the QWP from the coalition government.
When the QWP was shown the door the first time in October 2013, the PTI accused two of its ministers of involvement in corruption. The details of the corruption were never explained or taken to the logical conclusion. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission, publicized by PTI chairman Imran Khan as one of his crowning achievements to tackle corruption and now almost paralysed, also didn’t undertake investigations against the QWP ministers Bakht Baidar and Ibrar Hussain Tanoli even though they were sacked on corruption charges.
Bakht Baidar, the popular lawmaker from Lower Dir district, took Imran Khan to the court for damaging his reputation by making corruption allegations against him. He agreed to withdraw his petition from the court only after a jirga of PTI leaders led by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser travelled to his village and requested him to end his long legal battle against Imran Khan.
The second time the PTI unilaterally ended its coalition with the QWP was due to their different stances on the issue of the Panama Papers leaks. The PTI took the plea that the QWP despite being its ally in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa didn’t support its demand that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should resign following the submission of the damning Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report against him. The QWP was also unwilling to back the proposed PTI resolution in the provincial assembly calling for the Prime Minister’s resignation as it wanted to wait for the Supreme Court’s verdict in the case.
The first power-sharing deal between the two parties made after the May 2013 general election was simple and done in good faith. Those were heady days and the PTI was brimming with confidence after having come into power for the first time with the slogan of change. PTI’s Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who in the past had been a close aide of QWP chairman Aftab Sherpao and provincial president of his party, was the bond between the parties. There was no reason not to trust each other.
However, their second power-sharing agreement made in October 2015 was properly negotiated and elaborated keeping in view the bitterness that followed their separation when the first deal collapsed. A four-member liaison committee was formed and a conflict resolution mechanism was adopted to deal with disputes between the two coalition partners. This arrangement didn’t work when it was needed.
There won’t be any urge for seeking another deal in the months before the 2018 general election. The PTI and QWP have gone poles apart in a matter of a few days. There is little chance of reconciliation at this stage. Rather the two erstwhile allies would now indulge in blame-game. However, nothing is final in the game of politics. Who knows the PTI and QWP are forced by circumstances to consider making an electoral alliance for contesting the next general election.
