Political discord

The PTI government seems to be struggling to hold together the weakened coalition which is pulling at the seams and threatening to tear the alliance formed after the 2018 elections apart. The discord is heard in all the provinces in one-way or the other. In Punjab, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain of the PML-Q has spoken out strongly against the change made for the third time by the government in the committee appointed to hold negotiations with allies. Following this, Chaudhry Shafqat Mahmood, who met Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Monday, was unable to persuade the PML-Q to resume dialogue despite emphasizing that it would commence from where it was left off with the previous committee comprising Jehangir Tareen and Pervaiz Khattak, who have been replaced with Mahmood, Usman Buzdar and Chaudhry Sarwar. This is hardly surprising. Naturally, it becomes harder to reach compromises necessary in politics when the faces involved in the process of dialogue keep changing. It is astonishing that the ruling party continuously fails to realise this.

There are also other unhappy partners. Sadiq Sanjrani of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) has now been called in to talk to the MQM-P after it refused to rejoin the federal cabinet. During talks in Karachi, Sanjrani was reportedly told that the MQM first of all wanted that the MoU agreed to with it by the PTI be respected. In Balochistan, the BNP has also expressed doubts about the state of this partnership with the ruling party while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the disputes within the PTI itself are causing increased friction and instability in the province. The chief minister is under pressure as are those such as Pervez Khattak who have supported him over the past month.

This is hardly a healthy situation for any alliance, particularly one that is made up of only a narrow majority in the National Assembly. Leaders of the PTI need to look at the reasons for this falling apart with allies and examine what went wrong. Since so many of those who had stood by the government are unhappy, there is clearly something amiss. The frequent changes and U-turns being made only add to the problems. This state of affairs needs to be sorted out so that stability can be restored and the task of running the country can go ahead more smoothly.