PML-N, PPP’s confrontation proved bonanza for PTI

ISLAMABAD: The year 2018 spawned severe hardships and sufferings for two major political parties while it was all milk and honey for the third principal entity.

The lady luck massively favoured the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) making Imran Khan’s dream to be the prime minister come true. His was the only party that monumentally benefited due to the cornering and subsequent downfall of its arch adversary - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) – that was kick-started with the initiation of proceedings by the Supreme Court in the Panama case.

The PTI freely ran its election campaign without fears of any attack on its rallies and processions. As a result, it not only got the federal government but grasped power in Punjab, which was considered as the PML-N’s undisputed citadel. It was for the first time that a party won for the second consecutive time in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Not only that, it is also a major part of the Balochistan government. It managed a historic mandate in Karachi, which was not less than a miracle for many.

Over and above everything was the support that the PTI enjoyed the support of the influential circles not only before but even after the formation of its federal and provincial governments. It happened for the first time in Pakistan’s chequered political history.

The year engendered untold adversity – imprisonments, convictions, grilling by investigators and innumerable court appearances coupled with high-pitched maligning - for the PML-N particularly Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam, Shahbaz Sharif, and a number of senior party leaders, a process that will continue to haunt them in 2019. The Sharif brothers demonstrated remarkable resilience and courage in enduring the harsh times and never exuded signs of weakness or cowardice.

Nawaz Sharif was twice sentenced by an accountability court and jailed both times. It is unclear when he will walk out of the prison next year as he is confronted with an uncertain political future. Shahbaz Sharif is also incarcerated. All this process was ostensibly carried out by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

A big consolation, if it can be so called, for the thrice elected former premier is that despite his unparalleled bewilderment and cornering, his party has written a new history by remaining solidly intact barring a few desertions on the eve of the parliamentary polls. After the elections, it is united inside the National and Punjab assemblies and acts as an effective opposition party although it was the single primary target of the accountability.

The whole year kept resounding with colossal political confrontation, chaos and strife, and politics was never so fragmented and acrimonious before. Even the new elections failed to bring about political peace and stability. As its well-considered policy, the PTI persisted with its past container politics and stopped short of acting as a ruling party that would desperately need political calm, which is essential for economic stability. It tried to overcome glaring deficiencies in its performance and delivery by attacks on its rivals.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) rocked the unity in the ranks of the parliamentary opposition, which went to the government’s advantage and those who want to keep and see the opposition parties fighting among themselves so that they are unable to put up a joint front to challenge their adversaries. Whenever efforts were made to present the opposition as a cogent combined force, the PPP stood away for its own reasons.

It was greatly joyous over the battering of the PML-N for the most part of the year, vainly hoping that its turn will not come and its strategy will produce dividends for it.

The PPP became an active part of the process of marginalisation of the PML-N, which began with the opening of hearings on the Panama case in the apex court against the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017. The litigation added enormous woes to the PML-N’s misfortune, ultimately leading to the sacking of the premier and his arraignment in the accountability court.

In the early part of the year, the PPP questionably joined hands with the forces that played the fundamental role in throwing out the PMN-N led government in Balochistan and installation of a nonentity as the chief minister. The loss of the provincial government deprived the PML-N of at least seven Senate seats that were to come in the following March election to the half of the Upper House of Parliament.

The PPP continued its bizarre policy against the PML-N in collusion with others when it effectively blocked the latter to rightfully get its nominee elected as the Senate chairman. As part of its efforts to present itself as a good guy to do others’ bidding, the PPP under the tutelage and firm grip of Asif Ali Zardari refrained from joining hands with the PML-N in the election of the prime minister and the speaker of the National Assembly and refused to support the combined opposition parties’ candidates for these slots.

After his Supreme Court-sanctioned dismissal, Nawaz Sharif was embroiled in the references on its direction contained in the Panama judgment. As he was experiencing the most horrible time by appearing before the accountability court and being convicted, the PPP was happy inside over his punishment, and outside it was approving his sentencing.

This was the time when the PML-N was facing the cruelest situation in its life. It was not confronted with such scenario even during Pervez Musharraf’s martial law. Instead of offering a helping hand to the PML-N to assist it wriggle out of the nightmarish cobweb, the PPP kept pounding the Sharif family, aiding the tormentors of the deposed prime minister to continue the onslaught. It acted as the cheer leader, always forgetting that it was committing a blunder for which it will have to repent one day.

During this lingering exacting time, the PML-N kept extending the hand of friendship and making impassioned pleas to the PPP to change its trajectory, but these overtures were always spurned by the PPP with contempt and dubbed as opportunistic. The PPP leaders stated ad nauseam that their policy of “reconciliation” has damaged the party irreparably and benefited the PML-N. Therefore, they will never break bread with the PML-N.

The July elections brought good news for Zardari as he was successful in getting government in Sindh because the PPP impressively emerged as the single largest party with more seats compared to the previous parliamentary polls’ tally. The PPP supremo never expected to secure any respectable electoral gains in Punjab, KP and Balochistan. His top priority was Sindh and he grabbed it once again with a thumping majority. This was much consoling for him as against Nawaz Sharif whose PML-N was not allowed to form government in Punjab despite being the largest party in the provincial assembly. This single factor – PPP government in Sindh – hindered Zardari to join forces with Nawaz Sharif.

During the concluding days of the year, Zardari, his son Bilawal, sister Faryal Talpur and business friends plunged into a deep crisis as a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) finalised its report into alleged fake bank accounts accusing them of siphoning off billions of rupees. This portends a deep trouble for all of them in twenty nineteen, raising valid apprehensions about their arrests. The PPP will indeed be a smart party if it was successful to save its Sindh government in the chaotic situation it is faced with.

After the JIT report surfaced, the PPP is desperate to have some kind of collaboration with the PML-N, but the latter is reluctant to come forward, arguing that it has faced single-handed the ruthless accountability. It asserts that when it is being beaten black and blue, the PPP has been immensely exhilarated. It says it has built its narrative that the accountability of its top leaders is vindictiveness and victimisation, and it doesn’t want to mingle its stand with Zardari’s case at any cost.