ISLAMABAD - With mercury touching its extreme and fasting becoming muggier, political weather is also set to change in the country in the days to come.
Pakistan's political revolutionary leader Dr Tahir ul Qadari of PAT is burning midnight oil to spark a 'bloodless revolution', while another major opposition leader Imran Khan of PTI has given call to his party workers for rephrased 'Azadi March' on August 14 to shake up the rulers.
On the other hand, top notch of ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) with its power bastions in Islamabad and Punjab is busy giving final touches to its counter plans to browbeat the main political rivals.
People at large are at loss about implications of major political upheavals being planned by Dr Qadari as well as Imran Khan to force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who reins in most populous Punjab province, the emerging theatre for power struggle.
Background discussions and interviews with political leaders from Punjab revealed that clash of personalities and political agenda have become major impediments for Imran and Qadri to mount a joint struggle against the Sharifs.
Interestingly, this is happening in spite of best possible mediation being done by Chaudhry brothers (Shujjat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi) to remove differences between the two. But to no avail as their efforts are reportedly faltering and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) is gradually regaining the political space it had lost in the wake of June 17 Model Town incident.
Reports pouring in from Model Town Lahore suggest that Qadri is now showing his inability to participate in PTI's Azadi March on August 14. This is most disturbing for Chaudhry brothers. This is simply because they know they will ultimately be forced to pay the price for challenging the rule of Sharifs.
And that was why they preempted and struck a ten-point deal with Qadri, commonly known as London Plan, and had persuaded Qadri to change his plans to stage his comeback in Pakistan on June 23 instead of July.
Chaudhry brothers and Qadri have joined hands to ignite a peoples' revolution to rid of Sharifs latest by the end of the year. Chuahdry Shujjat Hussain has been appointed as chief coordinator of the 'bloodless revolution'.
Now they along with Dr Qadri are burning midnight oil to pronounce a 'revolution day', which according to Qadri, would take place within 15 days notice. On the other hand, sources in the Punjab government maintained that main reason of Qadri's no to Imran's Azadi March is that he is busy in the preparations of his revolution. He along with his followers, particularly the heads of the revolution committees he has set up throughout the Punjab at the union councils level, is lost in thought about finalising the revolution day. They are understood to have been divided one stream of the ideas coming from his followers is to set it for 27th Ramazan, that means June 26, the Chehlum day (40th day) of victims of Model Town tragedy. The other stream is recommending a day, after culmination of ongoing military operation against terrorists in North Waziristan. Qadari's revolution, apart from his reluctance to support Imran Khan's agitation plan and vice versa, has widened trust deficit between the two extreme ideological forces.
Sources close to Qadri believed that Imran is a political liability and would not give due space to Qadri should the revolution movement surmount with success. So is the thinking within the PTI cadres about Qadri and his supporters. "There is inherent clash of political agenda of the two forces," a senior PTI leader told The Nation requesting not to be named.
On the other hand, the ruling PML-N, which despite major political losses by making compromises within one year of its rule, is fast recovering from its lost political credibility over Model Town tragedy on June 17. To a great extent it has been successful in isolating Qadri through administrative measures including FIA probe into Qadri's money laundering and tax evasion to carve out cases against him and his followers if he tries to upset the Punjab government.
Likewise, the PML-N government has decided to offer development funds to sitting MPs from PPP, PTI and MQM to contain the brewing political crisis. Thus making it more difficult for Chaudhry Brothers to manoeuvre political space in mounting a joint campaign against Sharifs." They may succeed in stoking a peoples' revolution provided they give up the title of 'Chaudhry', remarked a senior PML-N leader.
On the other hand Sharifs have been successful in countering a major revolt within the PML-N by regaining the confidence of powerful Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. How meaningful is his reconciliation with Sharifs would much depend on his handling of Imran Khan's Azaadi March on August 14 or he opts for his annual overseas summer vacations.