Sound and fury

Even before it gathered any significant steam, the much trumpeted crusade of the opposition parties to bring  Imran Khan down seems to have become a non-event, and the planned no-trust move against the  Premier a non-starter.

The events unfolding on the political horizon, including Prime Minister Imran Khan’s counter-offensive launched soon after his return from Russia, have altogether changed the scenario, with the government now seeming relatively more comfortable in the face of the opposition parties’ protests.

The first blow to the Opposition came in the shape of PTI dissident group leader Jahangir Khan Tareen’s sudden departure to London for a medical checkup and the fact that before leaving, he had a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Imran Khan. Sources in the know told Bol News that Aleem Khan, another PTI leader who has been sidelined, was instrumental in breaking the impasse between the two.

These sources said that Khan had managed to mend fences with Tareen and had talked to him twice in a week, managing to avert fissures in the party. This stymied the Opposition’s plans of a quick victory, because they were  mainly banking on the support of PTI dissidents to help them overthrow the government.

Sources in the PTI disclosed that before his departure for Moscow, Prime Minister Imran Khan had asked the Governor Punjab, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar to take hold of party affairs in the province and address the grievances of the dissidents, most of them in the Tareen splinter group.

Governor Sarwar engaged Aleem Khan, a former senior minister in the Punjab cabinet, who had met Jahangir Tareen and facilitated his telephonic contact with Imran Khan. It was the first contact between the two after a gap of well over a year, following the initiation of an inquiry against Tareen regarding his involvement in the sugar scandal.

Sources said that although Jahangir Tareen had not made any firm commitment to Shahbaz Sharif about extending his group’s support to bring down the government, it was believed there was some tacit understanding   between the two to this effect. His quietly flying out of the country was thus seen as a big blow to the Opposition.

Imran Khan had also visited the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, ostensibly to inquire about the health of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, chief of his own faction of the Muslim League. Federal Minister Chaudhry Moonis Elahi, son of the Speaker Punjab Assembly, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, had already twice assured Premier Khan of his party’s unflinching support to the government, and pledged they would not becoming part of any move by the opposition parties to dislodge the government. Premier Khan’s visit to the Chaudhrys residence was seen as ensuring this pledge still held good.

In the coming days, Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected to visit Bahadurabad, the headquarters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (Pakistan) and other coalition partners, including the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), and the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), to further frustrate the opposition parties’ efforts against the government.

Furthermore, after returning from Moscow, Prime Minister Imran Khan held a meeting with army supremo, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, dispelling the impression of differences between the civil and military leadership.

Premier Khan went on to address the nation, whereupon he announced the provision of some relief to the people, in the shape of a reduction in the prices of petroleum products as well as a cut in electricity bills. He said this relief would remain till the next budget.

Against this backdrop, contrary to all their sound and fury, the Opposition is now clearly on the back foot.

Meanwhile, renovation work is currently underway in the main hall of the National Assembly to host the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Foreign Ministers Council moot scheduled to be held on March 22. The foreign ministers of OIC member states will also participate in the Pakistan Day Parade on March 23.

Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser said that the renovation work would be complete by March 10, and they would hand over the hall to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by March 15 to make arrangements for the OIC FM Council meeting scheduled for March 22.

When asked what would happen if the opposition parties decided to requisition the National Assembly session during this period to table a no-trust move against the government,  Qaiser answered in that event they would look for an alternate place to hold the session to meet  constitutional requirements. Under Article 95 of the constitution, after the tabling of a no-trust motion, the Speaker of the National Assembly is bound to hold voting on the motion not before three days and not later than seven days.

Political analysts said that if they delayed the tabling of the no-trust motion, the holy month of Ramazan would start, and it would become difficult for the opposition parties to proceed with their plans during this period. And if the matter was delayed, preparations for the next budget would begin, making a  no-trust more or less irrelevant.

Given this situation, with the opposition parties facing difficulty in winning the support of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government’s coalition partners and  that of the dissidents within PTI ranks, but for some unforeseen developments, the matter of the no-trust motion seems almost done and dusted.

Pakistan Democratic Movement chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s focus has also shifted to the second phase of the local bodies elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa scheduled for March 30. For understandable reasons — after performing extremely well in the first phase of these elections, he is keen to maximise his party’s success in Round Two of the LB polls.

It is now likely that the participants of the March 23 Long March planned by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) to Islamabad, will not stay long in the Federal Capital. This is because they can’t afford to stage a long-drawn sit-in when their presence is needed for the LB elections back home in KP.