By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : A war is brewing in Pakistan’s political world. Political parties are seeking new friends as they shed existing allies ahead of crucial elections next month.
Pakistan’s dominant political parties, including those led by former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, are seeking to form new alliances in the run up to the Jan 8 ballot.
But some parties are refusing to contest the elections.
Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which is most enthusiastic about the polls, says it is ready to join hands with Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, its long-time foe.
She said her party was ready to collaborate with everyone other than the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), which backed President Pervez Musharraf in his 2001 referendum and in his election for a second term.
Bhutto is also in contact with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) of Maulana Fazlur Rehman and could ally with him.
Rehman, whose party is one of the six groups in the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a religious alliance, has threatened to part ways because the other five constituents are against the elections.
“We will throw out the parties (from MMA) that boycott the polls,” Rehman told IANS.
But the other partners in MMA, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, are adamant that they will not contest as long as Musharraf is the president.
Rehman counters this: “We cannot leave the field open for pro-American and pro-Musharraf parties. All those boycotting the polls are in fact favouring Musharraf.”
On the other hand, the 32-member All Parties Democratic Alliance (APDM), which was formed in July, has already thrown out the PML-N of Sharif and four smaller parties after they decided to fight the elections.
Now the reduced 27-member alliance has announced it will withdraw its candidates from the election race and campaign for Musharraf’s ouster.
Sharif told media persons that he was contesting the election after initially saying ‘no’ because he does not want to leave the field open for “pro-Musharraf parties”.
Moreover, his boycott would be meaningless if major parties like PPP and JUI do not cooperate.
Sharif has also stepped up his tirade against Musharraf, who ousted him in 1999 to seize power and then forced both Bhutto and Sharif to go into exile. Both returned to Pakistan this year.
Sharif said while Musharraf arrested Pakistan’s top nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan, “Indians made their nuclear hero (A.P.J. Abdul Kalam) the president of the country”.
He vowed to free Khan, who is accused of running an illegal nuclear market, if his party won the elections.
Political analysts say that three or four major alliances are likely to announce seat adjustments.
The PML-Q may go with smaller parties like the National Party, the breakaway faction of PPP, Mutahidda Qaumi Movement of Altaf Hussain, Pir Pagara’s faction of PML and others.
A breakaway faction of Sharif’s party could sail with the Jamiat Ahle-Hadith and other smaller parties.
The third alliance is likely to be led by PPP and the fourth by JUI.