The War of the Rallies

By: Fatima Rizvi

The Chairman Pakistan Tehrik Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan started it. Sensing that the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) had been sidelined with even their government in Pakistan’s largest province with Shahbaz Sharif as the Chief Minister under criticism and the ruling party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), helpless against the mounting grievances of the people, Imran announced a political meeting in Punjab’s capital Lahore for Sunday October 30th. Not only that, Imran rubbed his advantage in by predicting a massive turn out that would decisively tilt the people in his favor. Woken from their slumber and desperate not to be outdone on their home turf the PML(N) announced a political rally (as distinct from meeting) for Friday October,28th with one single agenda-to start a movement “Go Zardai Go” against the President of the country. People wondered what this meant because the PML(N) was part of the political set up, being the government in Punjab, and so far had been an ineffective opposition. Once the PML(N) rally had railed against the government in strong language the PPP’s coalition partner the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) jumped in and announced a rally in their home city Karachi to be addressed by their exiled leader from London with the objective of supporting the President and condemning the outbursts of Shahbaz Sharif that had come in for across the board criticism because of the language used.

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Zardari to Nawaz – Stop criticising the army

By Abdul Manan

The political positions of the two leading parties in the country have come full circle since the 1990s. In a letter written to the eponymous leader of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, President Asif Ali Zardari asked Nawaz Sharif not to criticise the army or the government.

In reply to Nawaz Sharif’s address against govt, president urges all parties to help instead of pointing fingers.

The letter, which was highly critical of the PML-N leadership in polite but pointed language, was made public through a press release by the Punjab government’s information department.

Using references to the highly divisive politics of the 1990s, the president appeared to be playing the role of an elder statesman, asking the leader of the country’s largest opposition party to focus on helping the people of the one province that the PML-N governs rather than concerning themselves with criticising the federal government’s every move.

“The nation does not need provocative speeches, but rather a treatment for dengue fever,” the president’s letter was quoted as saying, in a reference to the dengue epidemic that has plagued Punjab over the past few days.

(Read: Alarming proportions – ‘Dengue out of Punjab government’s control’)

Teaching hospitals in Lahore, the provincial capital, report receiving as many as 600 dengue fever patients a day. A Pakistan Peoples Party spokesperson in Punjab claimed that 10,000 people had been affected by the disease so far.

The president also asked Sharif to spare a thought for the flood victims in Sindh, Zardari’s home province.

“If you do not want to visit Sindh because of me, visit it for the sake of the poor, marooned people of the province,” the president was quoted as having written.

The president even offered Sharif his personal residence in Nawabshah for his stay in Sindh and implied that his hospitality would be a repayment in kind for Zardari’s stay in Kholi (a prison), a reference to the time that Zardari was imprisoned on corruption charges (that were never proven) during the Sharif administration in the 1990s.

“Let’s come together to support the nation and get her out from the clutches of natural calamities,” the press release quoted the president as having said.

(Read: President visits flood hit areas, ensures relief and rehabilitation for affectees)

Allusions to plots

Yet the main thrust of the president’s letter appeared to be to convince Sharif of the need to support democracy in the country and not take any actions to destabilise it. In veiled terms, the president appeared to be referring to reports that have emerged in recent months that the PML-N is planning to seek early parliamentary polls before the March 2012 Senate elections.

Zardari reminded Sharif that the ouster of the PPP government in 1996 by then-President Farooq Leghari gave the PML-N a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly but did not secure democracy in the country, leading ultimately to the military coup by General Pervez Musharraf.

“Democracy requires a hundred years to take hold in a nation but it can be destroyed in an instant,” the president was quoted as saying. “Come out of the world of imagination, idealism and adventurism or else there will come a time when neither you will be able to call me in Kholi nor will I be able to call you.”

That veiled reference to the possibility of another military coup was accompanied with the request to Sharif to stop criticising the army, something that the PML-N leader has been doing very frequently and publicly since the May 2 US raid on Abbottabad.

(Read: ‘Zardari conspiring to create Nawaz-Army rift’)

Zardari asked Sharif to remember what the president considered to be the achievements of the PPP-led government, including the restoration of the 1973 constitution, freedom of expression, and the institutionalisation of the supremacy of parliament and the independence of the judiciary.

Racist Punjab Assembly Objects to Christian MPA Presenting Budget… What’s Next?

LAHORE: Several provincial legislators in Punjab belonging to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have objected to Punjab cabinet member Kamran Michael presenting the budget on grounds that he is Christian, sources within the party told The Express Tribune.

Some PML-N MPAs object to faith of fellow party member Kamran Michael.

Sources say PML-N leaders are in a bind trying to figure out who to assign the finance ministry portfolio before the budget is presented before the Punjab Assembly on June 10.

Several party members are reported to have objected to a Christian being given such a prominent position as that of delivering the annual budget speech and fear losing votes amongst some of their conservative, right-wing vote bank. The PML-N is already afraid of losing ground in its heartland of Punjab to other parties that have been making inroads in the province in recent months.

Michael had been given charge of the finance ministry in March, after the PML-N kicked out the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from Punjab’s ruling coalition. He replaced the PPP’s Tanveer Ashraf Kaira, in addition to retaining his earlier portfolio of human rights and minorities affairs.

However, while Michael was minister in theory, in practise the position has been managed by Sardar Zulfiqar Khan Khosa, senior adviser to Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Khosa attended all meetings related to the budget and was the de facto head of the ministry, despite the fact that Punjab government rules prohibit an adviser from heading any departmental business, even those at a department to which he or she has been assigned.

Sources say that Michael was forbidden from even contacting the finance secretary or the chairman of the planning and development department.

Michael holds the finance ministry as an “additional portfolio”, which means that he is authorised to present the budget. However, he has not been assigned the ministry itself. Rule 136 of the Punjab Assembly Rules of Procedure requires the provincial budget to be presented by the finance minister or another minister who has been assigned his portfolio.

According to the rules of the Punjab Assembly, the residual powers of any unfilled portfolios in the provincial cabinet are transferred to the chief minister until a new minister is appointed. Shahbaz currently holds 20 portfolios himself, having failed to appoint cabinet ministers after kicking out the PPP from the ruling coalition.

Sources said that PML-N members have suggested that the “additional portfolio” for the finance ministry be given to Education and Excise Minister Mujtaba Shuja Rehman in order to avoid Michael presenting the budget. A final decision on the matter is expected to be taken at a party meeting on Tuesday (today).

Since the chief minister technically occupies the powers of finance minister, he could present the budget himself, without having to assign the portfolio to any other cabinet member.

Punjab Government spokesman Senator Pervaiz Rashid told The Express Tribune that Rehman is most likely to present the Punjab budget for fiscal year 2012.

PML-N threatens PPP with ‘other options’

By Zia Khan

ISLAMABAD: Two days after expelling the PPP from its Punjab government, the PML-N Sunday said it would go for ‘other options’ if President Asif Zardari could not take firm measures to curb the unbridled corruption.

“The PML-N will continue to monitor Zardari administration’s performance very closely” – PML-N Spokesperson Ahsan Iqbal.

A spokesperson for the party, however, did not specify in a statement the ‘options’ the PML-N believed were available to it.

“The PML-N will continue to monitor the Zardari administration’s performance very closely,” said Ahsan Iqbal, the party spokesperson and a member of the National Assembly. “It will play its democratic role to check massive corruption prevalent in the government if no concrete steps are taken (to eradicate it).”

Though Iqbal did not mention it explicitly, in recent months the party has been alluding to the possibility that it might call for fresh parliamentary elections this year.

Iqbal said that the party would not have expelled the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from the Punjab government had President Zardari lived up to his promises of eradicating corruption and improving governance.

“The Zardari administration’s broken promises and poor performance made it inevitable for the PML-N to part ways with the PPP in Punjab,” the spokesperson said.

Corruption, inflation, unemployment and poverty had crossed all limits and were the outcome of the politics of patronage and bad governance pursued by the federal government, Iqbal added. He said that the PML-N went out of the way to help the federal government in implementing the reforms agenda which the country needed desperately but the Zardari administration exhibited no seriousness and concern.

“As a result there was no option left with the PML-N but to disengage with PPP in order to clearly demonstrate that it is not a party to the Zardari administration’s politics of plunder and loot,” said Iqbal.

Iqbal said that the Charter of Democracy (CoD) – an agreement two parties signed back in 2006 – made it binding on both the groups follow politics of good governance and to fight corruption.

“Zardari should have done that, if he wanted us to continue to support him,” the spokesperson explained.

Article 63-A was originally introduced as part of the 14th Amendment to the constitution in the 1990s, during the second term of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister, largely to help prevent the kind of changes in party loyalty that had made coalition politics so volatile during the so-called “decade of democracy.” It was hoped that by making crossing party lines illegal, coalitions would be more stable.

It’s time to decide against govt. Nawaz

Says campaign against judiciary must end; terms grants for bars a conspiracy; demands submarine deal commission takers be brought to book.

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif has said that the campaign against the judiciary should come to an end because conspiracies to destabilise the institutions would never be in the national interest.

Talking to reporters at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat here on Tuesday, he asked the government to mend its ways. Nawaz expressed dissatisfaction over the government’s style of handling issues, saying the country was not moving towards improvement, and it was high time that ‘some decisions’ were made against the government. He said they would not become silent spectators.

He said it would be in the government’s interest to improve working and pay heed to the implementation of court verdicts. He said the PML-N had some serious reservations about the government method of handling the issues.

About the distribution of funds by the PPP government among various bar associations, Nawaz Sharif said it was an attempt to create a division in the legal fraternity, and hatch a conspiracy against the judiciary. He said he held in high esteem the bar associations which refused to accept such grants. “If the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) is a right legislation, all prisoners languishing in jails should also be freed under it,” he added.

Nawaz said the nation would never forgive if the incumbent leadership failed to meet the expectations of the people, adding the PML-N believed in serving the nation to its maximum capacity.

Earlier, addressing a meeting on development projects in the Punjab, the PML-N chief stressed the need for speeding up the process for generating electricity from solid waste. He said the provincial government should initiate a plan to tackle the ongoing electricity crisis in the country.

Agencies add: In reply to a question, Nawaz said: “I don’t want to use the word ‘warning’ (to the government); however, the government will have to take some corrective measures”. The PML-N chief vowed to counter all kinds of conspiracies against the judiciary, asserting his party would not remain indifferent to the developments. “Is it legitimate to appoint a law associate as the law secretary?” he asked.

To a question, he said the Army generals then appointed to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) acquired plots. The politicians and dictators, who plundered the national exchequer, should be taken to the task, he said, adding the accountability process must also be initiated to probe into the loot and plunder during eight black years of the Musharraf regime. He also called for bringing to justice those who had taken huge amount as commission in the deal of Agosta submarines.

To another question, Nawaz Sharif said: “After rendering sacrifices, we got the 18th Amendment passed from parliament and real democracy would be protected at all costs.” He said it was never the motto of Pakistan’s creation that we, as a nation, would always be carrying begging bowls to the world for financial aid. “During our tenures in governments, we had launched development projects without taking any foreign monetary assistance,” he claimed.

Nawaz said huge corruption of Rs 300 billion was being committed in the country’s institutions, and suggested that arresting the menace of corruption could lead Pakistan towards independence and prosperity. “We have to create an enabling environment for investment to alleviate poverty,” he added.

He said the PML-N would requisition the National Assembly session to discuss the present-day problems at length. “We have been stunned by the government priorities. The people are committing suicides, but huge funds are being doled out to bar associations. Every decision of the government stems from lust,” he remarked.