ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is piling up its “list of demands” to go tougher against the seemingly beleaguered government, making it almost difficult, if not unworkable, for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to keep the party from taking to the street.
Sources in the PML-N said that the tone and tenor of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari showed that he wanted to walk a confrontational course instead of sitting across the table with the government to resolve the issues.
Bilawal has given an ultimatum that in case the government fails to accept their four demands by December 27, the PPP would launch a country-wide campaign against the Nawaz Sharif government.
Besides the earlier four-point demands, now the PPP leadership has started demanding to remove Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, holding him responsible to fail the government in implementing the National Action Plan in letter and spirit.
“Obviously, it would not be possible for the prime minister to accept this,” a senior PML-N leader said while talking to The Nation.
The sources in the PML-N said that the party leadership was taking into consideration the PPP’s four-point demands and it was the unanimous view of the senior party leaders that except for the demand of getting the PPP-moved Panama Papers bill passed in the Senate the government would consider accepting the other three demands for which some spade work has already been initiated.
A senior party leader and a member of the federal cabinet on the condition of anonymity said that the government would not even give a thought to the demand of replacing the interior minister, “whose performance had remained remarkable since his assuming the office”.
He said that keeping in view the irrational demands one could safely say that the PPP leadership had made up its mind for agitation and “was no more interested in negotiation with the government”.
The sources said that a couple of weeks back, the prime minister held a meeting with his close aides and it was decided that the government should engage the PPP in negotiation so that their genuine demands could be addressed.
Soon after the meeting, the premier directed all his party leaders to go soft on the PPP and avoid criticising its leadership even if they make hostile comments, with an aim to create an atmosphere for negotiation.
The sources said that after the meeting some backchannel contacts were established with the PPP and some initial modalities of the negotiations were also finalised.
During these contacts between the two sides the government side expressed its inability to support the Panama Papers Bill on technical grounds since the Panama leaks issue was sub judice and till the decision of the apex court the government could not go for any sort of legislation on it.
But the PPP side insisted on getting the bill passed by the parliament and the Panama issue should be inquired under the new law, which is not acceptable to the government.
After the deadlock on the issue, the PPP side has taken an extreme position and exerting maximum pressure on the government to get its demands met, the sources said.
In another development, the sources in the PPP said, that the party has refused to extend support to the government in getting the 24th Amendment Bill passed from the upper house and linked it to the acceptance of its four-point demands. The four demands of PPP include reconstitution of a parliamentary committee on national security, which was disbanded after the culmination of PPP rule in 2013, appointment of a full-fledged foreign minister, the passage of the opposition’s moved bill on Panama Papers and addressing of the party’s concerns on the CPEC.