While the PDM and the PTI seem to be at each other’s throats, backdoor negotiations are on to stop political chaos

ISLAMABAD: Political polarization in the country has intensified to the level where political opponents are not prepared to sit across the table to resolve their issues. As a result, disputes that are supposed to be settled in the parliament – such as elections to the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), or the issue of resignations of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) parliamentarians – are landing in the superior courts.

But behind the scenes, some serious efforts are underway to scale down the political temperature and bring the warring sides – the coalition government of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and its chief opponent, the PTI – together to evolve a joint strategy on tackling economic challenges as well as the resurgence of militancy across the country.

Saner elements on both sides believe that taking the current tug of war to the judiciary for resolution has greatly compromised the position of the parliament. By design or by default, some of the government’s own actions are also undermining the parliament. For example, the plan to discuss the issue of terrorism at the All Parties Conference (APC) rather than in the parliament is making the parliament irrelevant. In no other democratic country, including neighbouring India, Britain, or the United States, APCs are called to discuss national issues. Parliament is the place where all the important matters are taken up. However, the besieged Shehbaz Sharif government appears clueless how to leverage the elected assemblies as it tries to perform the high-wire act of showing itself as the master of the situation.

Sources in the ruling coalition informed Bol News that to carve a way forward on holding of elections and other related matters, contacts have been made with some senior PTI leaders and, hopefully, some breakthrough will be made during the next couple of weeks.

In this regard, the meeting of President Arif Alvi with PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the recent past was accorded great significance by some government sources who claimed that contact with the PTI was made through the office of the president on government’s request.

Some confidence-building measures will start coming to surface over the next few days, including the facilitation of the PTI parliamentarians to return to the National Assembly, and dropping of cases filed against the PTI MPs, the sources said.

There was no official confirmation of these backchannel developments. However, PTI leader and former speaker of National Assembly, Asad Qasir, did concede that being “political people’, they were in contact with people in the government. He however denied that any deal had been finalised.

He acknowledged that Federal Minister, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, had contacted him and extended an invitation to participate in the all-parties conference (APC) on law-and-order situation and other major issues facing the country.

PTI sources said that the party initially rejected the invitation on grounds that given the arrest of its central leaders on sedition charges and their mishandling by the law enforcement agencies, they could not sit with the government. But later, when a fresh offer came from the office of the president, assuring the party of some confidence-building measures ahead of negotiations, the PTI chairman has decided to review his earlier decision.

Sources in the PDM said that they would not create any hurdles in the way of the 43 PTI members returning to the National Assembly, one of whom will then be elected as the Leader of the Opposition.

While a faction in the government is trying to bring down political temperatures, Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and their aides want the government to mount pressure on Imran Khan and the other PTI leaders through cases, arrests and other such steps. The Sharif family wants Imran Khan ousted from politics at every cost and is prepared to go to any extent to achieve this goal. The confusing signals from the government are widening an already huge trust gap, though institutions also want the political players to settle their issues and play within acceptable boundaries as the country is passing through a crucial phase.

Hawks in the PTI are also wary of the situation and want to press ahead on the confrontation path to keep the government under pressure.

A central PTI leader, Fawad Chaudhry, denied any backchannel contacts with the government, saying that the PTI could only sit with the government on the one-point agenda of devising a way forward on holding free, fair and transparent elections in the country. Talks could only start after the government had announced an election date, he added.

Criticizing the ruling coalition, Fawad Chaudhry said that by not giving the election date for the provincial assemblies of KP and Punjab, the governors of both these provinces as well as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were in violation of the Constitution and should face trial under Article-6 of the Constitution.

He said that in case the PDM government failed to hold elections within 90 days, then on the 91st day there will be no constitution in the country, and this will have serious repercussions.

PTI Vice-Chairman, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said that actually the PDM government did not want to go into elections because of their fear of an imminent defeat. To avoid this, PDM was even prepared to subvert the Constitution, which would only add to the existing political uncertainty and chaos, which will in turn speed up the economic meltdown.

Constitutional expert and veteran parliamentarian, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, said that the Constitution is crystal clear on holding of elections within 90 days of the dissolution of assemblies. So, there is no question of extending the election date beyond the given timeframe. “I don’t think any court will take the blame for extending the election date on any pretext, as no one in the superior judiciary will like to be grouped with Justice Munir,” he said.

One senior PTI leader who is close to party Chairman, Imran Khan, said on condition of anonymity that a majority of the PTI Core Committee members are of the view that PTI should show some flexibility in its declared public position on holding of provincial assemblies’ elections, provided the PDM government changes its “stubborn” position and announces some earlier date for general elections to pave the way for further negotiations.

In this connection, some initial contacts between the government and some PTI leaders have been made, he added.

People in the know of things on this front said that in coming days, if things remain calm, the 43 PTI MPs will return to the National Assembly. These MPs had moved the Lahore High Court against their de-notification by the ECP, and the court had suspended the ECP’s notification.

Later, although Speaker of the National Assembly, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, barred them from entering the parliament, he later stated that he had not been provided the court order yet, and would consult his legal team before taking any decision on it.

Sources in the PTI informed Bol News that their party leadership was prepared for negotiations with the government on electoral reforms and delimitation of the constituencies in the light of the digital census to be held across the country next month. But ahead of entering into any such exercise, the PTI wanted the government to announce an election date.

On its part, the government, too, is embroiled in a struggle to control the economic downspin, and its efforts so far have borne no fruit. As such, it will also be interested in getting the country out of the prevailing political uncertainty, which would only be possible by engaging PTI in the dialogue process.