Alliance under Qadri — there is many a slip…

ISLAMABAD: Construction of a formidable alliance in consequence of the report on the Model Town tragedy seems an uphill task simply because of unbridgeable differences between two major political parties, which are in government (in different provinces) as well as the opposition.

If one of them agrees to become a part of any such coalition with Allama Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), the other force will stay away, frustrating creation of a major grouping that can make the federal and Punjab governments pass sleepless nights.

It is out of question that these two key political parties will consent to sit under one umbrella in a political or electoral alliance due to their intense tussle, which took birth and aggravated over the last four years.

However, both may lend support with varying degrees to street agitation including sit-in that Qadri may opt for as he has ordered his followers to be ready for a call from him and to keep his container in a running condition.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has given an open message to Qadri that he will join his movement and do whatever he will decide till justice is delivered to those killed in Model Town. He did not announce any independent protest and declared that he would go with Qadri’s judgment. However, he did not talk of reaching an alliance with the PAT.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has old association with the PAT dating back to the days of slain Benazir Bhutto as its chairperson. Former president Asif Ali Zardari especially flew to Lahore to express solidarity and support to Qadri on account of the Model Town tragedy. After their deliberations, their number one target was Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Zardari vowed to work with Qadri in the political field. If they cement some kind of a credible agreement, which, however, appears difficult given their track record for not having any electoral cooperation whatsoever in the past, the other principal political force – the PTI - will never join such arrangement. The PPP too would not like to be associated with any grouping where PTI features.

The PTI too has always been unwilling to work in any alliance and prefers a solo flight. But when it will come to be affiliated with any such force having the PPP in it, such possibility is ruled out considering the views the two have against each other. The only cooperative relationship that the PTI has so far built particularly keeping in mind the forthcoming general elections is with Maulana Samiul Haq’s Jamiate Ulema-e-Islam(JUI-S), which is confined to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) due to the latter’s influence in some pockets of this province.

Unless both the PTI and PPP get together in an alliance against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) taking Qadri along, it can’t become menacing political power to be reckoned with.

Like Zardari, PTI Chairman Imran Khan has also voiced sympathy with Qadri in the wake of the release of the Najafi tribunal’s report on the Model Town episode. Since they had worked closely in the 2014 sit-ins, the PTI chief deemed it proper to express solidarity with him. This contact was meant to mount pressure on the Sharif brothers. Imran Khan has demanded resignation of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah for what he claimed their indictment in the Model Town incident as per the Nafafi findings.

The PTI chief has repeatedly subjected Zardari to a blistering attack, discarding any likely bond with the PPP. This onslaught has given rise to immense acrimony between the two parties. At times, some PPP leaders have been responding to the PTI chief’s tirade while Zardari has not reacted too often. In his last public show in the federal capital, he harshly denounced Imran Khan.

Other parties like the PML-Q, which are ambitious to wage an alliance with Qadri to have some political relevance, lack public support. Even if they are even successful in making a coalition to contest the next general elections together, it will be inconsequential for having no electoral impact.

As the situation stands now, the talk of an ominous alliance in the company of Qadri to challenge the PML-N specifically in the next parliamentary polls in a big way seems non-starter. As usual, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed is thrilled over Zardari’s telephonic conversation and subsequent meeting with Qadri, and Imran Khan’s contacts with the PAT chief, but nothing substantial is visible on the horizon, materialising due to the bitterness and compulsions that the important political forces have.

Although Qadri had shown his aggressive street power to disrupt normal life in 2013 and 2014 by staging the sit-ins and staying put for a long time at the D-Chowk, his PAT has never proved to be a mighty electoral force that could scare its chief opponents – the Sharif brothers.

During the tenure of the second Nawaz Sharif government, seventeen political parties got together on the platform of Pakistan Awami Ittehad (PAI) under Qadri’s leadership that the PPP joined as a leading force. Qadri became its chairman. However, the alliance could not last long and was disbanded in 1999, having achieved nothing concrete. It was the first time that Benazir Bhutto accepted Qadri as the chief of an opposition coalition.

In August 2002, she visited the Minhajul Quran educational institute and bookshop in London. She showed interest in becoming a member of the Minhajul Quran network and filled up its life membership form immediately. Qadri did also recall this visit when Zardari met him in Lahore on Thursday.