Can Pakistan’s APC Bell The Cat?

-


At long last, the opposition parties of Pakistan showed some semblance of unity and came together recently in Islamabad, at the invitation of Bilawal Bhutto, Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), to hold an All Party Conference (APC), and set an agenda for joint action for future. The Jamaat-e-Islami distanced itself from the show, even as 12 other opposition parties attended it.

This was the fourth time since the July 2018 elections that the opposition parties are holding an APC. The first APC was held on 28 July 2018 three days after elections, where all opposition parties alleged widespread rigging to tilt the results in favour of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party. The other two convened by JUI-F, in June 2019 and June 2020; were poorly attended and did not go beyond issuing tame statements about the poor performance of the government.

In contrast, this APC, called Multi-Party Conference (MPC), showed some sign of resolve to take on the Pakistan government. The meeting called for resignation of Imran Khan and ended with a 26-point resolution. A three-staged anti-government action-plan was announced to launch an all-party Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

The PDM is to take shape soon. Countrywide public meetings, demonstrations and rallies will be held in December and culminate with “decisive long march” towards Islamabad in January 2021. All democratic methods like protests, mass resignations and no-confidence motions in the parliament will be tried, said the opposition leaders.

Two patriarchs of the leading political parties, PML-N and PPP, Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari respectively, addressed the audience through video-links. Sharif’s speech was openly critical of the Imran Khan government and its backers. He said “Our struggle is not against Imran Khan. Our struggle is against those who installed Imran Khan and manipulated elections to bring an incapable man like him into power and thus, destroyed the country.” It was reported that the Pakistan government considered stopping his address but finally relented.

Others raised a host of issues where the PTI government had failed to act, ranging from price hike, sectarianism, non-implementation of National Action Plan on Terrorism, interference in judicial matters, release of political prisoners, CPEC, and establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. True to the spirit of the moment, the APC did talk about putting “an end to the role of the establishment in politics”.

It has also been reported that a meeting was held last month between the Army Chief Bajwa and 15 opposition leaders. Among the attendees were Shahbaz Sharif of PML (N), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari (PPP), Sirajul Haq (JUI), Amir Haider Hoti (ANP) Asad Mahmood (JUI-F) and many others. Few government ministers also attended this meeting according to reports.

It was reported that the Pak Army Chief had assured the attendees that he would not brook interference of army in politics and urged them not to drag the Army into it. He also said that the Army did not have direct or indirect links with any political party and whenever the civil administration calls upon the Army to help, it is bound by the Constitution to do so.

Interestingly, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and some PML-N leaders urged Gen. Bajwa to ensure free and fair elections in future! Maryam Sharif of PML (N), later, took a dig at those attending the meeting and said that such issues pertaining to elections and democracy should better be thrashed out in the parliament and not in GHQ, Rawalpindi.

However, days after the meeting, Shahbaz Sharif, the Leader of the Opposition in Pakistan National Assembly and member of PML (N) was arrested on corruption charges by the National Accountability Bureau. It has been reported that Pakistan Prime Minister wants to bring back Nawaz Sharif from London at the earliest. This is to portray Imran Khan as the Prime Minister who fought corruption head-on.

It appears that the stand-off between Pakistan government and the opposition parties is going to take a turn for the worse in the near future.

Script: Dr. Ashok Behuria, Senior Fellow & Coordinator South Asia Centre,

Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Data Darbar Suicide Attack

-
The deadly attack on the famous Sufi shrine Data Darbar in Lahore on the second day of the holy month of Ramadan that killed 10 and injured more than 25 people is yet another ghastly reminder that Pakistan still shelters terrorist groups that have now come to haunt its own State. The suicide bombing was apparently targeted towards the elite security force that was assigned to guard the Shrine as the inflow of devotees increase during Ramadan. This is not the first time a Sufi Shrine was targeted by terrorists in Pakistan. Many Shrines like Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan, Baba Farid in Pakpattan and Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi were attacked in the past. The Sufi nature of these shrines has made them an easy target of the terrorist groups that consider Sufis to be heretics. The terror organisations within Pakistan such as the Pakistan Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Hizbul Ahrar (said to be a splinter faction of the local Taliban) that took responsibility for the latest bombings in
Read more

US Needs To Relook Into Talks With The Taliban

-
The US has deviated from its resolve to root out terrorism in any form. From July last year it has entered into a dialogue with Taliban. The sixth round of these talks began in Doha, Qatar last week and is still underway. The talks have not yielded any result so far. US Special Envoy for the talks, Zalmay Khalilzad is reported to have said that the talks revolve around withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, guarantees against terrorism, ensuring negotiations between Taliban and Afghanistan government for initiation of political settlement and a lasting cease fire. Direct involvement of US in Afghanistan dates back seventeen years to September 2001; when terrorists attacked twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. Following this, America had declared a war against terrorism. It vowed to punish Al Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden, whom it considered to be behind the attacks on American soil. It also declared to root out Taliban from Afghanistan for providing safe
Read more

India To Roll Out The World’s Biggest Covid19 Vaccination Drive

-
India will begin inoculating its 1.3 billion population against coronavirus starting January 16, in one of the world’s massive rollouts. The first phase of this daunting and complex task will cover 30 million frontline and health workers. This will be followed by the vaccination of 270 million people above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities or with high risk of infection. The aim is to vaccinate 300 million, equal almost to the entire US population, by July. This will be an unprecedented scale of immunisation. From developing, manufacturing to becoming a key supplier, India will play a crucial role in the global immunisation programme with two “Made in India” vaccines—Covaxin and Covishield. Covaxin, India’s first indigenous vaccine against Covid 19, is manufactured by the Hyderabad-based pharma company Bharat Biotech. The second, Covishield, was developed jointly by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, and is manufactured by the Serum Institute of Ind
Read more