News
Friday, May 20, 2011
May 2 fiasco: PML-N mulls Nawaz-Zaradri meet
By Muhammad Akram
LAHORE: Policymakers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are mulling over the possibility of developing a direct contact between party chief Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari over the Abbottabad fiasco, informed sources told Daily Times on Thursday.
The sources say the PML-N top leadership and its advisers have felt that a Nawaz-Zardari discourse could help expedite the process for formation of an independent commission, as was proposed in a resolution unanimously adopted by the joint session of parliament, over the Abbottabad debacle.
The sources say the PML-N think tanks are of the view that the delay behind the formation of a free commission is only due to the pressure which the country’s powerful military has exerted on the fragile political dispensation.
The sources say top brass of the PML-N thinks that the military has been looking for ways and means to get out the troubled waters without being questioned on the events surrounding May 2 intelligence breakdown.
The ruling PPP and its allies, say the sources, are finding it difficult to stand tall in front of the military at this critical hour. The sources say if this prospect of Nawaz-Zardari interaction is materialised, it would help the PPP government to get out of the fear of being cowed down by the non-democratic quarters.
A PML-N leader, who wished anonymity, said he had the information that the military had no intention to give up the control of the intelligence agencies and the foreign policy, especially with regards to India, the US and Afghanistan.
The PML-N leader said he was well aware of the fact that the PPP and PML-N leadership were not willing to let the military off the hook. He said the two parties should work together on one-point agenda – probe into May 2 fiasco through an independent commission – to fix the responsibility and settle down the civil-military relations.
A PPP leader, who was reluctant to comment on the possibility of a Zardari-Nawaz meeting in the wake of Abbottabad incident, said that the party’s high command had taken certain measures to let the armed forces off the hook.
The PPP leader, who wished not to be named, was critical of the country’s secret and security agencies that manueuvered staging of small rallies in their support in various towns and cities. He said the government had expressed annoyance over this move and made the military stop such activities, as the same were not going down well inside and outside the country.
The leader claimed that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had made a hurried visit to China on the request of the military leadership and its details were also worked out at the military level between the two countries.
Political analysts say that the meek show of public support for the armed forces in the streets has not gone well with both the government and the opposition. Political pundits suggest that a Zardari-Nawaz meeting in the near future although appears to be a remote possibility since the PPP would not want to send a message of boarding a PML-N bandwagon on the Abbottabad fiasco, but a possibility of the same could brighten if the military doesn’t let the PPP government to sort out the matter the way it wants to.
They believe that probe of the Abbottabad fiasco is turning out to be a reality and the vibes that are so far emanating from PPP quarters are quite positive, but as they say, “There is many a slip between the cup and the lip.”
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk