LAHORE:
With almost all the chances stacked in their favor and with little to lose, the problem of the channel is becoming a blessing disguised for the PPP, since the controversy is helping the party to reconnect with its central support base, which gives it the opportunity to establish an independent position in the government, two PPP leaders said.
Now that the PPP has refused to give in its demand for shelves of the controversial channel project, threatening to even withdraw its government support, the PML-N ruler is realizing the bitter consequence of this confrontation and on Sunday he finally decided to take a political route, offering that the PPP government led Sindh to solve the problem through dialogue.
This dialogue offer was apparently made with the instruction of the president of PML-N, Nawaz Sharif, who has advised his party to take his ally in confidence.
Before this intervention, some PML-N leaders were seen taking public jokes in the PPP, and some called an intra-party battle, while others called the PPP position on the theme of the channel a battle for their political survival in Sindh. A PPP main leader admitted that they were a little late to respond about the channel’s dispute, allowing the local leaders at Sindh to begin the subject.
However, he said, anyone who affirms that the PPP is threatened by these political entities is completely ignorant about the reality of the soil in Sindh. He said that the PPP could not have reacted impulsively as these local players did, since it is a key ally of the government.
“The PPP would not have taken any hard line, if government ministers had demonstrated any maturity,” he said.
He said, regardless of how the situation happened, it was a blessing disguised as the PPP. He said that the PML-N, or those behind, are fully aware that the PPP can reduce this system in an instant.
He said that the only glue, especially in trial times, maintaining this united alliance, the establishment, cannot at least in this matter that the PPP does it in its own way.
“They will have to make some assignments. Allowing this project to continue potentially could jeopardize the control of the PPP on Sindh, so any amount of threat would not force it to surrender to the subject.”
He said with his numerical force in the National Assembly and with his policy at stake in Sindh, neither the PML-N nor the establishment can do anything to make the PPP change their mind. “The PPP will go to this battle, even if that means leaving this government,” he added.
He said that the president of the PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and his father, president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, are on the same page on this issue. Zardari’s stature does not allow him to pronounce the type of hard speeches such as Bilawal, but at least they are of the same mind in this matter, “he said. However, he reiterated the position of his party that they do not want to destabilize the government and expect the PML-N to reach their senses.
Another well -located leader said that they see the dirty game behind the coverage of the media in Sindh by local level leaders. He said that a perception was created that the PPP would have agreed with this project, if opposite voices had emerged inside Sindh.
He said that it cannot be denied that the PPP took its time to access this situation and that it is a fact that the PPP had to change their march in the province to counteract those emerging voices, but affirm that the PPP would have allowed this exploitation of resources of its people is a perception that is being created to damage it politically.
He said that it was initially a challenge, since opposing the channel meant opposing the establishment, but that, according to the source of the PML-N, they made it an opportunity they are charging.
He said that with Bilawal taking the center of the stage on the subject, Sindh is witnessing another Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to do. He said that the exploitation of resources is a delicate issue for three smaller provinces and for Sindh’s water is a sensitive high problem.
He said that the PML-N policy is at stake, since it will be the largest loser if the packaging is sent to your government.
“The establishment is known for changing horses in the middle of the current, and in this scenario, the replacement is already waiting in the wing. The PPP has Sindh. What does the PML-N have that it is not ‘sacred blessings’. Then, before making fun, they should look inside to know their own value?” He added.
