The cat is out of the bag

ISLAMABAD: The cat is out of the bag – the Balochistan chapter of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is being replaced with a brand new political party predominantly comprising its powerful dissidents, who ditched it over the past few months.

The new entity possibly to be called the united Muslim League will be mainly focused in Balochistan with the basic objective of staking a claim to a major share in the power corridors after the next general elections. It will not agree less than the prime minister’s slot with the help of the future anti-PML-N parliamentary forces and “independents”.

In this possible scenario, the other vigorous claimants to the top position like the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) may be forced to rethink their policies and alignment with different quarters.

With Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti’s firm announcement about an early launch of the new party, the entire devious scheme employed first to oust the PML-N’s chief minister Sardar Sanaullah Zehri and then get elected six senators as independents now stands unveiled.

The unfolding of the plan of cobbling together the new party may have come as a surprise for many who did not grasp the underlying purpose behind the expulsion of Zehri and election of independent senators, who have already taken the office of the Senate chairman. But discerning people were aware that the plan has not come to an end with these two developments.

The creation of the new force follows the precise pattern through which the former king’s party -- PML-Q -- was midwifed by Pervez Musharraf, taking away top PML-N stalwarts during Sharifs’ exile in Saudi Arabia, and the Pakistan Sarzameen Party (PSP) was carved out of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

But these innovations have faced or are confronted with dismal fates. The PML-Q evaporated in the thin air the moment Musharraf’s umbrella was flung away with his exit from the Presidency. It is now only a paper tiger, having no relevance whatsoever in the political field. It ruled for full five years, but in the following elections it stood decimated for having no roots among the masses. The PSP has weaned away some MQM legislators but at the public level it hardly has any say.

All the influentials associated with the PML-N in Balochistan, who contested the 2013 elections on its tickets and most of them won making it the single largest party in the provincial assembly, will now be herded into the new outfit. The effort would be not to leave even a single leader having sway in his home constituency for the PML-N to count.

Chief Minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, who had won his provincial seat with only 500 votes in the last polls, will be the face of the new party. Party politics has always been weak in Balochistan while powerful individuals, having hold on the basis of their tribes, have been holding sway in almost every election. For this reason, their loyalties with political parties have been loose and feeble.

The formation of this party will obviously prevent the former PML-N lawmakers and “electables” to join the PTI or the PPP. Both these parties had got no presence in the national and Balochistan assemblies from this province in the 2013 polls. However, the PML-N had emerged as a major force to be reckoned with.

The regionalisation of politics and marginalisation of national political parties is injurious for the country, which is a federation needing national and not regional parties for its strength and power.

It is no secret that Bizenjo is a big nonentity in Balochistan as far as mass public appeal is concerned. He was suddenly chosen to replace Zehri, and was put on the stage to bag the Senate chairman’s position by having just six “independent” senators.

“We are going to establish a new progressive political party that will be different from parties doing politics in Balochistan,” Bugti said.

The reaction of the parties having standing in Balochistan and others working at the national level to the new creation will be obviously negative and hard-hitting. But it will be inconsequential as was their crying and wailing over what shabby happened in the Senate election. Like or not, the Upper House chief was foisted out of nowhere.