It looks like someone is angling for the PM spot, kind of sad really I used to have a grudging respect for Leghari, now it appears he’s sold out. Still now we know whereto look for the who’s who of pakistani politicians, all the richest and most feudal MNA’s, senators and Mpa’s are now in one party.
THE National Alliance’s decision to merge with the PML early next month when most of the latter’s factions would, most likely, have teamed up into a single party, represents yet another step in the process of unification set afoot by the ruling coalition soon after the general elections in 2002 were over and the King’s Party, PML (Q), took office. Informed political opinion would, however, wonder whether the emerging unification would anyway prove to be meaningful and strive to make genuine contribution to strengthening the democratic psyche of our leadership or merely go the away of the erstwhile Republican Party and Convention League. Neither so-called political monolith took long to vanish into thin air, once their patrons had left the scene. High among the imperatives of a political merger and being part of a bigger whole is the readiness to set aside petty, personal and factional interests to promote the common interests of all its units, that should be in conformity with the country’s cherished goals. If different factions are unable to shed their baggage of demands – the quest for a slot in the cabinet, for instance, or party office – unification loses its purpose. That ‘selflessness’ inevitably stipulates a commonality of certain principles and fundamental objectives to have guided towards the merger. Giving the rationale of the Alliance’s planned merger, Millat Party head Farooq Leghari has, however, cited the President’s wish ‘to strengthen the present democratic system in the country.’ The concordance of agenda between the PML and the Alliance that Mr Leghari also mentioned could hardly be taken seriously; for every political party would claim to be working for “the supremacy of law and good governance, elimination of unemployment…” In a way, the unification of different PML factions makes sense because they were at one time or another part of the same party, and the personalities involved have worked with each other at some stage. On the other hand, the National Alliance components are PPP offshoots and hence there so-called merger with the PML is expediency pure and simple.
Mr Leghari’s allusion to the President taking over as PML president after doffing his uniform points to positive thinking at the highest level as far as the question of holding dual offices is concerned. The fact of becoming the party president reflects the tendency to succumb to political expediency and is not free from pitfalls. The justification for President Musharraf holding that office put forward by Mr Leghari is hardly relevant here. Yes, he was the PPP’s Secretary General when he himself became President, but he immediately resigned even his basic party membership.
The merger would raise the PML’s strength in the National Assembly to 147 with the Treasury Benches’ occupants remaining at 196, short of two-thirds majority by 33 votes, apart from the shortfall in the Senate. As the government seems bent upon securing a two-thirds majority in Parliament, the merger would not be the end of the game. The backstage players might set their sights on persuading other parties, like Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI (F), to join the ranks. This would be as unfortunate as it is unprincipled.