PML-N set to lose market share

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I was just watching a new yet typical controversy coming up with Ayesha Ahad , the daughter of an ex PML N politician who then joined the ranks of PML Q, claiming that Shahbaz Sharif’s son , Hamza Shahbaz, had secretly married her and then mistreated her; put her in prison etc etc. When the journalist asked why for so long Ayesha Ahad had not come up with the evidence and why she has now chosen to do so, her Mom was found to be short of answers.

The answer is that this is yet another one of the various initiatives that Zardari has taken to dent PML N and its electorate. Already in a master move, he supported Imran Khan in Punjab and simultaneously got the backing of MQM to also hurl criticism at PML N. Until a few days back it was being assumed that it would almost certainly result in PPP losing the upcoming elections and that PML N would be in a position to form a coalition government. But the master politician that Zardari is, he has changed the situation on its head. PML N will now have a very serious competition in Punjab. With PML Q and MQM (although MQM doesn’t have anything to do with Punjab politics) also at PML N, the only party that will be benefiting will be PPP.

This is what PML N has had to pay with for being a friendly opposition and by waiting the current term out in order to simply take the opportunity to come into power in the next elections. The futility of democracy in the current term is as much the government’s fault as it is PML N’s. With Imran Khan arriving on the political landscape of the country, there is finally hope that the musical chair between the two largest parties will finally end.  The only viable option for PML N appears to be to form a grand alliance with the religious parties. But does the global environment today tolerant of such a development? Can PML N redefine it’s “positioning“  to what it was earlier : that of a right wing party with obvious religious inclination. Would US with all it’s purported influence in Pakistan’s internal; politics allow such a party to come to power?

Finally, with increasing fragmentation, the political landscape of Pakistan appears to be heading to a very different direction to that of the model democratc state of the world : the US. Having multiple political parties and a hung parliament is not good for legislation making either.

What Pakistan needs is a political party to steer it out of the socio-economic quagmire that it is caught into. Everything else will automatically fall into place if that happens.

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