Divided house: PDM confronted with a huge challenge to its unity and existence

ISLAMABAD: The 10-party opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), is a house divided, faced with a huge challenge to its unity and very existence for the first time in its six-month history.

Because of the serious rift in its ranks, the PDM has been forced to put off for an indefinite period its flagship protest – the long march to the federal capital. There is little likelihood that even after another meeting of its central executive committee (CEC), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will review its decision not to resign from the assemblies and will bow before the view of the other PDM constituents.

“The PDM parties proposed more than once to the PPP that the resignations can be divided into two steps, but to no avail,” Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal told The News. He admitted that the PDM has received a serious setback owing to the lack of consensus in its latest deliberations. But efforts will be made to repair the damage, he said.

In the first phase, according to the proposal put before the PPP, the PDM lawmakers were to quit the National Assembly. As a second step, the legislators of the provincial assemblies were to resign, he said.

Other PDM leaders this correspondent talked to said that the long march, if held with or without the PPP, will now take place after Eidul Fitr. They said that this gap of several weeks was not encouraging for the opposition’s campaign. However, the question of walking out of the assemblies will remain unresolved, they added.

Even otherwise, the postponement of the long march has taken the sting, if there was any, out of the opposition’s protest drive. Added to the prolonged postponement, uncertainty also prevails about whether the PDM will be able to hold the long march and build up the requisite momentum.

The PPP is of the opinion that it will not vacate the elected forums come what may because such an eventuality gives room to its adversaries to dominate the political scene. It has learnt a bitter lesson from the 1985 non-party general elections and local council polls organised by General Ziaul Haq that it had boycotted. Because of this decision, it had remained without representation in the Senate and local governments for a long time.

PML-N leaders admit that they were hurt by the speech delivered by PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari, particularly his demand that Nawaz Sharif should come back to receive the resignations and use them at an appropriate time.

Even in the PML-N, there is no clear consensus about resigning from the assemblies. However, those opposed to the move have never mustered the courage to tell the leadership that this option would be counter-productive and should not be exercised. There are apprehensions within a segment of the PML-N that in case of resignations, the party would not be ‘allowed’ to show an electoral performance in keeping with its popular appeal in future polls. Efforts would be made to get this vacuum filled by parties such as the PML-Q, some leaders fear.

PDM stalwarts say the alliance has so far accepted all the PPP’s demands with the sole objective of keeping the party as part of the coalition. One, the PPP had pressed that the by-elections should not be boycotted. The PDM accepted that view, contesting the string of recent by-elections across the country. Two, it demanded that Yusuf Raza Gilani should be supported for the Islamabad Senate seat. The PDM parties consented and voted for him. Three, the PPP urged that Gilani should be backed as the combined candidate of the PDM for the Senate chairman. It received a positive response from the component parties.

Before the Senate elections, the PDM had reached an agreement on three points: Gilani will be its joint nominee; he will be fielded as its candidate for the Senate chairman’s poll; and the office of the leader of the opposition in the upper house of parliament will be given to the PML-N. However, there is now talk of differences between the PPP and PML-N over the allocation of the opposition leader’s slot.

PDM leaders admit that the collective power of not only the PDM but also the individual influence and bargaining position of its major constituents will significantly weaken if the grouping splits or is further weakened. Everybody will suffer, they believe. They say the primary purpose behind the formation of the alliance was to pool together the power of all the parties to give a tough time to the government. A big test the PDM faces after Tuesday’s deliberations is how to keep the alliance as a relevant political force or, failing which, be doomed.

While the PPP’s rigid stance against resignations, leading to disarray in PDM ranks, has demoralised and disappointed Nawaz Sharif, Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other colleagues in the opposition alliance, government spokesmen and PTI supporters are now showering accolades on the PPP supremo’s ‘wisdom and sagacity’. This is because discord in the alliance benefits their cause—even though the government has been equally critical of Zardari as they are of Nawaz Sharif.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and all the other political rivals of the PDM are naturally thrilled over the apparently insurmountable rifts that the alliance is beset with. The fact that the PDM finds itself in a difficult position provides an ideal opportunity to the Imran Khan government to sit with the opposition and seriously talk about key national issues so that all political forces join hands and speak with one voice on them. There is a dire need for lowering the political temperature that could ultimately bring about a semblance of political stability.