Opinion - News Analysis   

Rising anxieties over premiership battle

— Photo: AFP

Asif Ali Zardari (right) and Makhdoom Amin Fahim: The rift may take longer to heal.

After voting in the Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Muslim league (N) in the February 18 elections, Pakistan is gripped with anxiety about the unseemly infighting in the PPP over the post of premiership.

The euphoria of the momentous agreement between the PPP and the PML(N) to form a coalition government has been overshadowed by the open rift between PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari and the party’s vice-chairman, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, leading to specu lation that the party is on the verge of a split.

Mr. Fahim, a stalwart of the party and a Benazir-loyalist believes that if Mr. Zardari is not interested in becoming the prime minister, he should be the next choice for the post. His hopes were pinned on it after Mr. Zardari announced days after Benazir’s death that Mr. Fahim was the most likely choice for prime minister.

Sindh was burning at the time in a backlash of anger against Benazir’s assassination. All agreed that even though he would just play second fiddle to Mr. Zardari, the real power behind the throne, Mr. Fahim’s elevation as prime minister would be soothing balm for the province. A party stalwart and a Benazir loyalist, the Sindhi leader has strong backing within the party and in the province.

It was just before the elections that the sidelining of Mr. Fahim began. Individual PPP leaders began to suggest Mr. Zardari for the post of premiership. The PPP leader added to the speculation by saying that he was not ruling himself out.

But the results of the election were not as favourable to it as the PPP had expected, and the word from Mr. Zardari was that he would much rather devote his time to strengthening a party suffering from a leadership crisis after Benazir’s assassination.

At the same time, he allowed three other candidates from Punjab to emerge as challengers to Mr. Fahim for the premiership. Voices close to Mr. Zardari began saying that the PPP’s poor performance in Punjab necessitated a strong revamping in the province, and choosing a prime minister from the province was the first step. It would also help to keep a balance with the Pakistan Muslim League (N), which emerged as the single largest party in the province, and is to lead the provincial coalition government.

Then followed the search for a “consensus” candidate through a long-drawn process of consultations with parliamentarians, which only seemed to accentuate the differences within. With Mr. Zardari seemingly in no hurry to decide on the Prime Minister, the distance between him and Mr. Fahim was becoming more obvious. The PPP deputy leaders’ absence from the historic meeting at Murree where the PPP and PML(N) turned the page as rival parties and agreed to sit together in government brought it out in the open.

An alarming war of words ensued between Mr. Zardari and the PPP on one side and Mr. Fahim set off rumours that the party was on the verge of a split, and that a Fahim-led “forward bloc” of PPP parliamentarians was in the making.

Needless to say, the PPP in Sindh has been most concerned at the developments. To parliamentarians from the province, Mr. Zardari reportedly said it was only because he intends to take on the prime ministership in three months that he favoured someone from Punjab as a “stopgap” arrangement.

Unsurprisingly, when Mr. Zardari ended the week-long consultations with parliamentarians, it was he who emerged as the consensus candidate. But even now it is not clear if he is positioning himself for the job. From the four contenders, two consider themselves to be still in the race — Mr. Fahim says he remains a candidate, while Ahmed Mukhtar, an industrialist who is close to Mr. Zardari is also confident of his candidacy, besides making it clear that he will step aside when asked to do so.

While the Pakistani media was agog with speculation that Mr. Zardari sidelined Mr. Fahim on account of the latter’s alleged contacts with the presidency and the “establishment”, the PML(N) waded into the controversy with a statement that Mr. Fahim’s candidature for the premiership was rejected on its say-so.

The allegation by a senior PML(N) leader, Khwaja Asif, that the PPP number 2 held a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf the night Benazir was killed sent shock waves through political circles. Mr. Fahim denied the meeting and has slapped a legal notice for defamation on Mr. Asif.

A dinner meeting on Wednesday between Mr. Zardari and Mr. Fahim was supposed to sort out their differences, but it seems to have made no difference.

The messy beginning to democratic rule has had editorial writers in several newspapers wringing their hands in despair at what Dawn called a “sordid drama”. The newspaper blamed the PPP leadership for allowing its internal differences to fester and surface, and the PML(N) for coming out in the open with its allegation against Mr. Fahim.

“Such displays of divisiveness — be they between political parties or within one group — will give the presidential and religious camps an opportunity to question the abilities of the next government. That could lead to anti-democratic forces paving the way for another phase of authoritarian rule.”

The News described it as “a test for Mr. Zardari since a public spat with his party’s senior-most leader within weeks of taking over is not reflective of good leadership abilities.”

Meanwhile, the word from the PPP is that the leadership may keep the name of the Prime Minister in suspense until the very last day. The newly elected National Assembly members will be sworn in on March 17. The next two days will see the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker. The Prime Minister follows, and according to reports, his swearing-in could take place on March 22. The wild guessing game will come to end then but the rifts in the PPP may take longer to heal.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Dispirited markets
Measure for measure
Governance reform key to NREGA success
Russia strikes back
Corrections and clarifications
Rising anxieties over premiership battle
Narmada Valley rehabilitation work: let right be done
Meghalaya politics
Employees strike
Jihad in Kerala
Indian hockey

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu