PTI doves prevail upon hawks

ISLAMABAD: Doves and pragmatic elements in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have prevailed, though for now, over the hawks with the hope to manage a smooth sailing for the government inside Parliament.

For the moment, Prime Minister Imran Khan has gone with the counsel of the sensible lot, ignoring the strategy pushed by the hardliners. There is a marked difference between the approaches and policies of the two sets of leaders in the PTI government. The hawks publicly project their stand at a sonorous pitch on daily basis, intensifying the war of words with the opposition parties. On the contrary, the dovish elements generally keep their views up to themselves and refrain from doing or saying anything that has the potential of heightening political temperature, but forcefully advocate their opinion in high-level closed-door deliberations.

The first instance of the doves having the last laugh emerged when the lingering ticklish issue of the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was resolved winning kudos from the parliamentary opposition.

According to PTI insiders, senior politicians like Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, who have long experience in the political field and possess the ability to sort out tricky issues, did the real trick. They were joined by relatively junior figures like Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Muhammad Khan and Aamer Dogar.

Speaker Asad Qaisar also played an important role in conjunction with them. Since word go, he wanted to tide over the issue of the PAC chairmanship and move ahead because, in his view, its prolongation was making it difficult for him to run the National Assembly without hullaballoo. He was also facing denunciation from the opposition parties.

No hardliner was consulted or taken on board when the decisive session to break the impasse was held. This exasperated the hawks. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry was one of their leading members, who had openly opposed the appointment of leader of the opposition and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif as the PAC chairman. Even after the final decision was taken by the prime minister, he publicly voiced his reservations and disapproved the move. He had been campaigning for months against Shahbaz Sharif’s nomination to the key post.

Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, though not officially in the PTI but a strong part and parcel of its government, is another opponent of Shahbaz Sharif’s selection. “This decision did not find any appreciation from the general public and has not sent a positive message to the people and world which want corruption to end. If Shahbaz Sharif is honest then believe me no other person is dishonest in the PML-N.”

By conceding the position of the PAC stewardship to Shahbaz Sharif, the doves have a clear agenda to achieve. They hope for reciprocation from the opposition specifically a helping hand from it in lawmaking in the Senate where the PTI is incapacitated to do legislation. However, it will be naïve to expect that the opposition can be taken for a ride. In Pakistan’s history, it was never so strong numerically as it was now in both the parliamentary Houses. In the Upper House, it can conveniently block any legislation.

The lack of the requisitestrength in the Upper House of Parliament undeniably continues to occupy the mind of the government because without the Senate’s cooperation, it is in no position to implement its reform and political agenda.

It dawned upon the doves that if the current confrontation in the National Assembly that also frequently spills over to the Senate persists, the government will remain handicapped to do any worthwhile parliamentary business. They realised that it is in the government’s own benefit that relative peace and tranquillity prevails in the two parliamentary chambers.

Not only during its much-debated first 100 days, the PTI led coalition has not tabled even a single bill in either House of Parliament even after that. There are expectations among the doves that the government will now start bringing before Parliament its legislative business. Their communication channels with the opposition parties are open to sway them into backing certain bills.

“We will not hesitate in supporting the official legislation and the only condition is that it must be for people’s welfare and bring relief to the people, who have been much hard-pressed due to the government’s policies over the past four months,” senior PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah told The News. “The government showed maturity by accepting Shahbaz Sharif as the PAC chairman, honouring the old parliamentary tradition. The message from the opposition was clear that it will boycott the House committees if the opposition leader was not made the PAC chief.”