Balochistan: national political forces stand sidelined

ISLAMABAD: Some may rejoice but many discerning people will be deeply grieved and stressed to note a sad reality — three major political parties – the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) - having been largely confined to an equal number of provinces as far as their assemblies are concerned. What happened in Balochistan last week for whatever reasons and regardless of who engineered it broadly turned the provincial parliamentary politics into a ‘no-go area’ for the national parties.

Except the National Party (NP) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), which are undeniably regional groups, the national political forces stood sidelined.

Barring these two parties and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, the parliamentary party of any group, which formed the new government, is not known to have held a meeting to decide its course of action in the election of the new chief minister.

It is an open question whether the marginalization of principal forces will benefit the federation of Pakistan and national politics. Some will blame the political parties for having no strong organizational edifice that can withstand pressures. Others will be thrilled as to how the parties claiming to have say all over Pakistan have been reduced to truncated positions.

But saner elements will bewail construction of an environment where the chief political forces are limited to their main bastions of powers – a particular province - having little say in other federating units. Certainly, this phenomenon is disastrous for the national politics and unity, and will promote regionalism, which is definitely not a good development in a federation like Pakistan.

After the 2013 general elections, the PML-N had governments, single-handed or in collaboration with other parliamentary forces, in Punjab and Balochistan, and at the federal level on the basis of their numerical superiority. In cooperation with the NP and PKMAP, it ruled Balochistan for four and a half years without any threat or hassle. Out of the blue, its entire “parliamentary party” in the provincial assembly has been ‘hijacked’, leaving with no representation in it although all of its defecting twenty-one lawmakers were elected on its tickets.

As it is known, the PML-N has negligible presence in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh assemblies, but it has a total control over the Punjab legislature. It presented a national outlook by getting majority in the federal assembly in the last election although most of its MPs were contributed by the majority province. With end of its representation in the Balochistan assembly, it is now constrained live with its domination in the Punjab legislature only.

In the previous polls, the PPP was decimated in all the provinces except Sindh. What it got in Punjab, KP and Balochistan did not present it as a national party that it happily used to be. As it is confronted with the nightmare of somewhat repeat performance in the upcoming election, it will mostly remained limited to Sindh, which will be a very unfortunate scenario. Its revival at the national level is a far cry, and Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal are still needed to do a lot of work to restore its lost glory.

Even in the next polls, it apparently mainly eyes Sindh where it is likely to form government once again. Thus, it will be restricted to Sindh alone. However, at the federal level it is the second largest party in the National Assembly and also has a firm grip over the Senate, a position that may not be in sight after the next polls.

As far as the current parliamentary politics is concerned, the PTI controls the KP assembly in unison with the Jamaat-e-Islami and some other smaller groups. It is the single largest party in the provincial legislature but didn’t have the enough tally to form government on its own. In Punjab and Sindh assemblies, it has small representation. In Balochistan it is non-existent.

If the PTI was successful in drastically improving its position in Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan, and at the federal level in the fresh election, it will be a huge development. As of now, its parliamentary politics is focused in the KP assembly.

In the National Assembly and Senate, it has hardly ever taken too much interest exploiting the energies of whatever MPs it has in the two chambers. Their chairman Imran Khan has a dismal record of attendance (in fact no attendance at all) in the Lower House of Parliament.

If the present enforced fragmentation of political parties and their restraining to one province each persisted, the future elections will fuel provincialism, which will obviously be a bad news for the federation. Unless the political forces, at least the major ones, are allowed to freely work to have nationwide appeals, regionalism will prosper. Apart from provincialism, a weak political system and uncertainty will stare the nation in the face.