NEWS

SLAMABAD: Against the backdrop of unfulfilled promises, the relationship between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) remained on a sour note in 2009.

Tensions between the two major parties markedly came down following the restoration of the judiciary on March 16, but gained intensity again when Nawaz Sharif alleged that President Asif Ali Zardari was “masterminding” a campaign against him and his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, to get them disqualified.

The hostility between the two parties peaked when governor’s rule was imposed in Punjab for two months after the Sharif brothers were declared ineligible to contest polls.

The top leadership of both parties made antagonistic statements and levelled serious allegations against each other. On March 9 – just six days before the lawyers’ long march – Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Nawaz could be charged with sedition for his statements on the current government and the judicial crisis. In response, the PML-N showed its street power, particularly in its stronghold of Lahore, on March 15, consequently forcing the prime minister to reinstate the deposed judges in the wee hours of March 16 with the permission of the president.

Following the judges’ restoration and President Zardari’s address to a joint sitting of parliament on March 28 – in which he announced to lift governor’s rule soon in Punjab and reiterated the PPP’s resolve to undo the 17th Amendment – the relation between the PPP and the PML-N started returning to normal.

But friction between the two parties surfaced again when the Supreme Court declared “illegal” actions taken by Pervez Musharraf on November 3, 2007. The PML-N started demanding Musharraf’s trial under Article 6 of the constitution, while Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said action would be taken if parliament passed a unanimous resolution.

The National Reconciliation Ordinance also struck a serious blow to the already strained relationship between the PPP and the PML-N. The PML-N not only adopted a stern stance over the ordinance, but also resisted the government’s plans to get the document approved by the National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice. Although the party failed to achieve its objective for lack of strength in the NA committee, the PML-N prevailed when the government tabled the controversial ordinance in the Senate and the National Assembly. All political parties, including PPP allies, refused to vote for the NRO.

In the same month, debate on the Kerry-Lugar Bill – now an act – in the Senate and the National Assembly again pitted the PPP and the PML-N against each other. The PML-N termed the US aid bill a threat to the sovereignty of the country, while the PPP forcefully defended the document.

The NRO – this time in the Supreme Court – widened the gulf between the parties on December 16, when the court declared the ordinance null and void: some PML-N central leaders demanded that President Zardari and NRO-tainted PPP ministers resign.

A secret meeting of PML-N central leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif with General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, on the night between September 30 and October 1, also added to the trust deficit between the PPP and the PML-N.

In 2009, two meetings took place between Nawaz and Zardari with no breakthrough on major issues. The first meeting came when Zardari visited Raiwind on July 17, and both leaders discussed proposed constitutional amendments and relations between their parties. On October 26, Nawaz, along with other PML-N leaders, called on Zardari at the Presidency.

The PML-N demanded the repeal of the 17th Amendment throughout 2009, while the PPP maintained that the task had already been assigned to a special parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms and the government would waste no minute in repealing the controversial amendment. But the year passed without the withdrawal of the amendment.