Nawaz begins informal election campaign
Tariq Butt
ISLAMABAD: PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif’s next stop is Balochistan where he will woo the top Baloch nationalist leaders for meaningful cooperation with his party.
The visit that will take place shortly comes on the heels of his recent trip to Sindh where he had a session with a group of Sindhi nationalists with the resolve to work together.
“These visits are part of the PML-N’s efforts to end its political isolation,” a senior party leader conceded to The News.
However, while Nawaz Sharif does not publicly admit that the PML-N is faced with serious political isolation, some top party leaders do agree with this opinion and say that at present President Asif Ali Zardari and his party have more political allies than their party. They added that it has been repeatedly discussed in high level party meetings that the PML-N has to make concerted moves to overcome its isolation. “While making such efforts, we will have to keep our principles supreme,” he said and added that the PML-N would not opt for expediency to make short-term political gains.
Another top PML-N leader said that his party had good relations with senior but estranged Baloch leaders, including the Mengals and Bugtis. “However, a formal alliance with them is yet to be forged that will be worked out in the run-up to the next general elections,” he said.
He said that these Balochistan nationalists did not see eye to eye with President Zardari and his party and feel that they are being treated shabbily as nothing concrete was being done to address their serious grievances and complaints. They are concerned about the frequent mysterious killings and recovery of dead bodies, he said. “The PML-N is the only party, which has clearly rejected the ongoing bloodshed in Balochistan, demanding a halt to such tactics, which are damaging for the country,” he said.
The PML-N leader believed that his party’s unequivocal and consistent condemnation of Nawab Akbar Bugti’s assassination, expression of solidarity with his family and demand to prosecute his killers have been received well across the board in Balochistan. Bugti’s political heirs, he said, have excellent ties with the PML-N and are willing to work with it in the political field.
As far as the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is concerned, he said, the PML-N is quite confident that the PML-Q headed by Amir Muqaam in the province will fall in its lap sooner or later. He said that the KP PML-Q chief has had contacts with top PML-N leaders, which would finally pay in the shape of merging his party into it.
The PML-N leader said that his party was watching with interest the agitation and uneasiness of Amir Muqaam with his party over joining the federal cabinet. According to him, although the PML-Q leader has become minister, he is uncomfortable with his position and has distanced himself from his party.
He pointed out that Amir Muqaam has put together a good party in the KP because of his personal efforts, but the PML-Q leader sees no future in the PML-Q, which has dumped his efforts to be away from a thoroughly discredited and corrupt government. Amir Muqaam has been telling his colleagues that he has no face to show to his party stalwarts and workers in the KP as they did not want any cooperation with the PPP as per its traditions.
The PML-N leader did not rule out a meeting of Nawaz Sharif with Amir Muqaam at some point of time to finally take him away from the PML-Q. Before that, he said, proper homework would be done and everything would be finalized and sealed with the PML-Q leader.
He hailed Amir Muqaam’s stand, policy and assertions that the League workers were never mentally prepared to work with the PPP. He felt that the PML-Q would receive a devastating blow in the KP if Amir Muqaam was weaned away from it.
The PML-N leader said that Nawaz Sharif and his party needed to work hard to restore its previous solid position in the Hazara Division, which was damaged by renaming the North West Frontier Province as KP.
He said that Nawaz Sharif’s visits to other provinces and addressing two public rallies in the Punjab showed his plan that the PML-N chief has started bracing up for the next parliamentary polls. The PML-N leader said that Nawaz Sharif was constantly receiving requests from different district chapters of his party to visit their areas and address public rallies.
Source: The News
Date:5/23/2011
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