PML-N unfazed as no major dent caused to party

ISLAMABAD: All the allies of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and some other political parties have stayed away from rushing to Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Allama Tahirul Qadri in the wake of the release of the Najafi report into the June 2014 Model Town Lahore tragedy.

Not only the allied parties of the PML-N but also some other forces like the Jamaat-e-Islami, Awami National Party (ANP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Qaumi Watan Party of Aftab Sherapo, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), Milli Muslim League (MML)- the political arm of the Jamaatud Dawa, Sunni Tehreek and almost all the religious entities exhibited no interest in showing solidarity with Qadri, believing that there is no point in paying a visit to him.

All these forces have serious differences amongst themselves over several national issues and have no love lost for the PML-N. But they are unanimous in ignoring the politics Qadri is doing on the instant issue. They have also been opposed to the government with varying degrees and contesting elections against it. Some of them including the TLP, which created a huge crisis by occupying the Faizabad interchange for three weeks, are very critical of the PML-N. The MML too has no soft corner for the ruling party.

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq, who has sponsored another sit-in in the federal capital, had stood out among those politicians, who had lethally lambasted ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during hearings in the Supreme Court in the Panama case for many months. But he is not prepared to break bread with the PAT. He continues his tirade against the PML-N for one reason or the other. All the allies of the PML-N have displayed unwavering resolve and determination to stand with it at this time when it is being besieged from all sides with the principal objective of diminishing its electoral prospects in the approaching general elections. It is obviously encouraging for the PML-N that none of its partner has slipped away. Only those parties, which PML-N leaders have described as “assets” and “robots”, made a beeline to Qadri’s Lahore residence to demonstrate camaraderie with him immediately after the Model town findings were released. This ritual is now over as every political entity of this ilk has paid the visit to Qadri, completing the circle.

The concerted effort of all such elements was to stimulate the PAT chief to launch a protest on the pattern of his 2014 sit-in to spawn a nightmare for the PML-N. They committed to extend support to his agitation. However, he is mulling the time of his strike but is also keeping in mind his last experience when he had to unceremoniously pack up his agitation at the D-Chowk without achieving anything substantial except creating mayhem and chaos. He was very demoralised over the outcome and remained off the political scene in the following few months. What surprised many was the visit of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief and former President Asif Ali Zardari, heading a delegation of his party comrades, to Qadri’s residence. He vowed to lend support to whatever protest call the PAT chief will issue.

While the Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP) has no public say whatsoever and not even a cosmetic organisational structure in Punjab, its chief Mustafa Kamal came all the way to Lahore from Karachi to buoy up Qadri. However, since its establishment the PSP has stubbornly shunned the politics of agitation in Karachi, where it has a negligible standing, mainly to condemn Altaf Hussain’s oft-issued calls of shutter-down and strikes to paralyse the metropolis. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has not personally gone to Qadri’s house after the Model Town report was made public but did send a party delegation to tell the PAT chief that he shares his standpoint and is ready to back his protest.

The PTI and PPP are key political forces among the parties that have tried to nudge Qadri to take the plunge once again in the confrontational arena. All the other entities whose top leaders have visited Qadri are political nobodies, lacking even trifling following being in no position to make any significant contribution to any protest.

Among the PML-N’s allies, the Jamiate Ulemae Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, National Party of Hasil Bizenjo and Pukhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party of Mehmood Achakzai are vehemently opposed to the kind of politics Qadri pursues. Therefore, the call of their leaders on the PAT chief is ruled out. Like their senior partner, they shun conspiracies to weaken and undermine the democratic dispensation. They are for on-time elections so that the democratic process stays on course.

Posing the PML-N as unfazed by a likely protest led by Qadri, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has stated that he wished all these elements including Imran Khan and Zardari appear on one container with the PAT chief so that their politics is totally annihilated and the nation knows their real face.