The dream and reality of opposition
There was much excitement among the leaders of about a dozen political parties holding an all-parties conference on July 27, two days after Pakistan’s general election. The most remarkable feature of the conference was the presence of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N).
What surprised many observers was the closing of ranks between these two parties, which have an acrimonious history. For decades, every trick was fair game as long as it could hurt leaders of the other party. Most of the cases against former President Asif Ali Zardari, for which he spent almost 11 years in jail without conviction, were registered when the PML-N was in power.
PML-N leaders reserved the filthiest language for Zardari and the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, both of whom were PPP members. Seldom do the wounds of hurtful language heal, particularly as the media can show such clips during primetime broadcasts.
But parties with an antagonistic past can find common ground, common cause and a common platform. Pakistan’s political history is full of such episodes. The recent opposition unity is shaped more by the emotions and agony of electoral defeat than by a common ideology or political program.
Parties with an antagonistic past can find common ground, common cause and a common platform. Pakistan’s political history is full of such episodes.
Rasul Bakhsh Rais
The parties congregated on July 27 to reject the 2018 election result and claim that it was rigged. They took three decisions: To protest inside and outside Parliament, to not boycott Parliament, and to field joint candidates for the speaker of the National Assembly, prime minister and president. The first two points contradicted each other, while the third depended on how the parties calculated their prospective gains and losses.
The opposition parties’ newly established solidarity was soon lost when the PPP refused to vote for Shahbaz Sharif as the prime ministerial candidate. It then decided to field its own candidate for president. Within three weeks of its formation, the joint opposition became factionalized.
One needs to understand why the PPP has charted a different course from the other opposition parties, now led by the PML-N. The PPP is acting according to a well-planned political strategy to recapture Punjab. It cannot do so by aligning with the PML-N. Standing alone as a third party in Pakistan’s largest province might give the PPP better prospects than working under the shadow of the much larger PML-N.
There is also a systemic issue relating to the number of political parties. In a parliamentary democracy with many parties, they tend to safeguard their own political interests.
Being in opposition against a rising, popular party — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — and its charismatic leader Imran Khan is a major challenge. The opposition parties will have to demonstrate democratic character, leadership, and an intellectual capacity to offer alternative solutions to national problems. Opposition for the sake of opposition is a dead convention that will further diminish their influence and standing.
– Rasul Bakhsh Rais is professor of political science in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS, Lahore. His latest book is “Islam, Ethnicity and Power Politics: Constructing Pakistan’s National Identity.” @RasulRais
