PMLN Stands Bright Chance to Win the Elections
12 May 2013
By Saeed Qureshi
The credible indications are that Pakistan Muslim
League (PMLN) under its leader Mian Muhammad Nawaz
Sharif would capture maximum seats in the forthcoming
general elections and thus emerge as the majority
party. Since it is entering into electoral alliances
with Pir Pagara's functional Muslim League and
National People's Party, it may form the next
coalition government at the center.
It appears that since presently, the PPP does not
enjoy the traditional popularity with the masses; it
may not be able to win adequate numbers of seats in
three provinces of Balochistan, NWFP and Punjab. In
Sindh, it could have a split mandate to be equally
claimed by MQM in Karachi and Hyderabad. The level of
disenchantment is quite high against the incumbent
government in the center and also in the Sindh
government. But since MQM vote bank is always safe due
to ethnic unity and because of severe backlash against
those not voting for the MQM, it may win all or most
of the seats in their controlled constituencies.
It would be desirable for the PPP to take the backseat
and re-formulate its strategy for the next elections
in 2018. The PPP leadership should go for
introspection as to how it could not robustly deliver
this time and therefore reorient its programs and
policies to gear up for the next election season. If
PPP returns to its pristine image and reboots the
manifesto unfurled by the chairman of the party ZAB in
70s, it has the potential of staging a comeback.
Despite PMLN being betrayed after initial political
alliances with the PPP, it has been vehemently
opposing hijacking of power by the army. It opted out
of the coalition with PPP and preferred to play the
role of the so-called friendly opposition that
facilitated democracy to survive for five years.
Despite a chaos ridden five years period of PPP in
power, the PMLN refrained from making efforts to oust
the PPP from power or proverbially fish in troubled
waters.
Now elections must be fair and free and without
malpractices. There is a danger of turmoil if the
parties that lose allege rigging or fraudulent
practices against the party that carries the day. The
country cannot afford further agitations and protests
and lockouts and mess and crises. The parties that
lose should accept their defeat in good grace and in
the supreme interests of the nascent democratic
caravan to move forward.
If Pakistan can sustain another five years' democratic
spell, it would by all reckoning, have a safe and
glorious future. Democratic bond is the strongest bond
in the contemporary world to keep the nation together
and govern the country with consensus. It is an
effective recipe to foster internal cohesion and
unity. It commands universal respect.
Notwithstanding, the bitter political rhetoric and
scathing polemics, the glaring fact is that the PMLN
government in Punjab has achieved several milestones
for the progress and advancement of the province.
Chief minister Shahbaz Sharif is sincerely trying to
make the social environment better by providing
indispensable facilities like infrastructure, roads
and comfortable transportation. He has zealously
labored to promote education and health facilities in
his province. The lawlessness and violence that is
relentlessly endemic in other provinces, is much less
in Punjab.
The Sharif brothers have learnt bitter lessons during
their exiles in foreign lands for almost 8 years. It
is hoped that the stiffness of disposition and
punitive tendency in Nawaz Sharif must have mellowed
down after spending many grueling years out of
Pakistan. Now he should, for the sake of the
democratic order to continue, learn to accommodate
divergent opinion and not jump to reprisals, such as
attack on the supreme court of Pakistan in 1997. He
should desist from removing one army chief after
another unless there would be inevitable grounds for
doing so.
Nawaz Sharif is a true son of the soil whose merits
are quite a few and studded with landmark laurels. He
was one prime minister who despite inexorable
multi-dimensional pressures both internal and
external, went ahead with atomic tests following the
Indian explosions. He was the one in whose tenure
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelled
to Pakistan by bus and recorded indelible pro-Pakistan
views at Minar-e- Pakistani. The signing of Lahore
Declaration for mutual peaceful relations was a
landmark achievement for both the countries.
Pakistan and India were well on the way to mending
their fences and enter into a new phase of good
neighborly relationship. There could have been the
possibility of cutting the ‘Guardian Knot' of Kashmir,
had he not committed the blunder of sacking the then
COAS Pervez Musharraf in a clumsy manner resulting in
the advent of military rule once again.
It would be safe and objective to hazard a guess that
a quid-pro-quo would be possible between him and the
religious extremist groups including Taliban. That
might come as a soothing and most sought-after turn of
events in the troubled and violence marred landscape
of Pakistan.
During the times of Nawaz Sharif and late Benazir
Bhutto, Karachi was bedeviled with violence and the
outlaws and criminals of all sorts were at the
rampage.
There were, thugs, rogues, killers, desperadoes, and
brutal ethnic militants playing with the city's peace
and the situation was horrendously precarious. But
when the state machinery was mobilized with full
force, the peace and normal life returned. Although
many an innocence citizen may have perished in the
cleanup operations yet a greater good was much better
than a little infringement of the established rules.
One would hopefully believe that if PMLN forms the
government, it would herald a new era in the troubled
and chaotic history of Pakistan. The new Nawaz Sharif
would not be a nonchalant and emotional young man of
90s but a much reformed, diligent and sober person who
would do the right things for Pakistan.
He may not indulge in money making scams and shun
bending laws and amending constitution for self
perpetuation and for serving interests of party
cadres. If he comes clean, he would make history both
for himself as well as for Pakistan.
©
EsinIslam.Com
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