PPP government runs on shaky ground

Saturday, July 19, 2008
ISLAMABAD: The government is so intensely gripped by a sense of insecurity that a key Asif Zardari aide recently airdashed to Dubai to break the news to the chief that the federal political set-up was being sent away very soon.

"I got the clue about the imminent dismissal of the government from a friend, who is well connected with foreign diplomats, mattering in Pakistan much," a Zardari House source quoted the aide as saying on the condition that he should not be named.

The associate stayed in Dubai for three days and met Zardari quite often. He flew back to Pakistan the other day. His information was that the stage was being set to sack the government before the next Senate elections so that the PPP might be once again robbed of securing a comfortable majority in the upper house and subsequently electing its nominee as its chairman.

The aide said that Zardari reacted to the information passed on to him with composure and poise and remarked that conspiracies against the government would be thwarted on the force of the peoples power. He stated he was aware that machinations and schemes were under way against the political set-up since its establishment, and referred to different developments as pointers to such plots.

Zardari told his adviser that he would independently check the information from his diplomatic friends. He said the PPP had not been allowed to have majority in the Senate since 1988 and every time it had the prospect of getting such numbers, its government was shown the door.

The PPP, staying in power till the next Senate elections, will surely bag a number of more seats, becoming the largest party in the upper house for the first time. Its old desire to have its representative as the Senate chairman will also then be fulfilled.

Zardari and all of his like-minded PPP leaders firmly believe that the government is being incapacitated by a variety of actors, who are engaged in destabilising and maligning it. They name some of them but withhold the identity of some others.

One of them alleged that the PPP had given the "excellent gift" of a total end to the suicide bombing within the first couple of months of assumption of office but "they" did it again in Islamabad on the anniversary of the Lal Masjid-Jamia Hafza storming on July 6. He said there had been no appreciation for the PPP for giving such a wonderful present to the nation.

These PPP leaders stopped short of accusing non-civilian intelligence agencies of creating a situation where the government looks rudderless and lacking control over the affairs.They also lay blame on Aitzaz Ahsan and his lawyer supporters and describe them as an important player constantly pulling the governments leg. They dont say the PPP is about to take a stern action like expulsion against Aitzaz but add in a categorical tone that he would be further marginalised in the party.

The PPP leaders term Qazi Hussain Ahmed-Imran Khan combine another actor, playing the spoilers role. They claim that Qazi Hussain and Imran were playing to the galleries while slamming the government on the pretext that it is not restoring the deposed judges. They add that the irony is that the two leaders are making no contribution to healing the wounds inflicted by the prolonged divisive politics.

They sense that the eruption of one grave crisis after another, including the simultaneous protest by all the three bourses of Pakistan, is not out of the blue but part of a campaign to paint the government black. But they are hopeful that the government would overcome most difficulties with the passage of time.