Nawaz Sharif and Unification Bloc

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

Canada: Free $30 Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Free $30 Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

If Nawaz Sharif was unconvincing while justifying support of the PML-Q dissidents, called the unification bloc in Punjab, the Rabbani-Awan duo sounded hollow in its stance that the government had sincerely pursued to attain the objectives set by the 10-point agenda. The PML-N chief talked of midterms polls as a constitutional and legal option, but Babar Awan rejected the alternative, terming it as wishful thinking and impossibility. Rabbani remained decent and careful and foresaw the PPP’s opposition role in Punjab. However, Awan was as usual sarcastic and boasted about the PPP’s bid to form its government in Punjab. Practically on Friday, President Asif Ali Zardari lost the comforts of a friendly opposition. He knew well the perils of this development, so he never let the PPP ministers to leave the Punjab government till such time they were thrown out. They have now been kicked out of the coalition. The president wanted to avert this because he was sure that the PML-N’s getting into real opposition mode would mean a real threat to his rule. And the threat is now knocking his doorstep. His main rival, Nawaz Sharif, too has risked the N-League’s Punjab government but made his options clear. The PML-N is preparing for mid-term polls. It is all set to take on the PPP. At the same time, it has lured the PML-Q MPs with the only exception of Chaudhrys of Gujrat to return to their mother party. With the PML-N, PPP, PML-Q and Q-dissidents placed in such a strange numerical position in the Punjab Assembly, any serious scrutiny into the legality of the 46 Q-dissident MPAs, who are the sole strength to the Shahbaz Sharif government in Punjab, would lead to the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly and holding of mid term polls in the province.

The PPP’s Governor in Punjab Sardar Latif Khosa may now ask Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to show his majority in the Punjab Assembly. It would be construed as a call for the dissolution of the provincial legislature. While the PPP and the PML-Q are not in a position to form a government in Punjab in any case as was their situation during the Governor’s rule, the Q-dissidents may also not be in a position to give a credible life to Shahbaz Sharif’s regime. If the legalities of the new coalition in Punjab are placed before the courts for judicial scrutiny or referred to the speaker, it would have serious consequences for the provincial assembly. The future of the provincial assembly could only be secured if the PPP and the PML-Q leadership keeps a mum on the Q-dissidents—termed as lotas—for the sake of the assembly’s life but to the advantage of the Shahbaz Sharif government, or if the Unification Bloc decides to re-join the PML-Q. Both of these possibilities are remote if not impossible. The third possibility is to get a favourable ruling from the superior judiciary, validating the Q-dissidents act of taking over their own party and joining the government benches. But this too is a hard option.

REFERENCE: All options open in Punjab after PPP-Nawaz split By Ansar Abbasi Saturday, February 26, 2011

Click HERE to read the rest of the story.

Article viewed at: Oye! Times at www.oyetimes.com

Share with friends
You can publish this article on your website as long as you provide a link back to this page.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*