ISLAMABAD: The meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif could not make any breakthrough – the PML-N explained its position on all “contentious” issues, except the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and made its concerns public after the meeting, but the presidential spokesman claimed there was an understanding between the two sides to resolve all these issues.
The meeting was held on the invitation of the president with an open agenda. Understandably, a formal agenda was not set to move forward in a bid to mend fences rather than sticking to “demands and conditions” in an already volatile political situation with clouds of uncertainty thickening amid reports of growing tension between the state institutions.
While talking to media before going to the meeting with the president, Nawaz Sharif had, however, made it clear that his party’s position was that the NRO, if passed, would tarnish the image of parliament besides embarrassing the legislators and that his party would not be a part of any such legislation. Although it was expected that the PML-N delegation would formally convey its position to the president that the PPP-led government should not get the NRO passed from parliament, none of the members of the delegation even slightly referred to it.
The coalition partners of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have yet not taken a clear position on the NRO. They are following a wait and see policy. The Awami National Party (ANP) says it will not disappoint the nation and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) says it will not vote for the NRO. The Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) is tight-lipped. The insiders, however, say that the ANP and JUI-F would tacitly support the NRO by abstaining from voting while the MQM would possibly vote for it.
Though the PML-Q has categorically announced to vote against the NRO in both houses of parliament, the PML-N’s silence on this issue during the meeting between its chief and the president suggests that it would go for a quid pro quo and get maximum out of the prevailing political and security situation, which has supposedly pushed the president in a tight corner.
What the PML-N can ask for is repeal of Article 58(2-B), removal of the restriction to become prime minister and chief minister for the third term and transfer of power to appoint the services chiefs to the prime minister. And if the president agrees to the first two conditions and keeps the power to appoint the services chiefs by tabling a package of constitutional reforms in parliament, the PML-N may choose to either abstain or boycott the National Assembly and the Senate sessions at the time of voting knowing that the Supreme Court will finally decide the fate of the NRO.
The Nawaz-Zardari meeting is also being seen as a formality with the PML-N apparently not budging from its stated position on political and constitutional issues. The reference to “bad governance” in the meeting that this may derail the democratic system and at the same time reiterating that the PML-N will not become a party to any “unconstitutional move” against the political set-up is simply to take a position that in the event of any “extraordinary” situation on the basis of bad governance it could justify its position and role as opposition party for having warned the government time and again.
The president may appear to be in a difficult situation but he still holds the fort with all powers enabling him to control all “institutions” which matter. Though he knows that in the present security environment the powers that-be may not venture into equally troubled political waters, he also understands that his only weakness in this situation is that his party does not have even a simple majority, also indicated by Nawaz Sharif in a press talk on Monday, to independently form government in the Centre. And this weakness can only turn into his strength to save the democratic system if he takes the political parties along on the basis of give and take – the ball is in his court.
Though Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has indicated that the president is ready to relinquish his powers, the history of broken promises has already widened the gulf between the PPP and the PML-N and this gulf can only be bridged if the government, in consultation with other political parties, hastens to table the much-awaited constitutional package. This will not only soften the PML-N in particular but will also help disperse the clouds of political uncertainty in the country.
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