Islamabad: The federal government of Pakistan has adopted an absolute “no lift” policy to the four demands of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, showing its total lack of seriousness toward them.
There may be different reasons behind this official strategy with the principal one being waned political relevance and weight.
Moreover, since the PPP doesn’t pose any great threat to the government, the latter is indifferent to its hue and cry and caveats to start its agitation on December 27, the day Benazir Bhutto was martyred nine years ago at Rawalpindi’s LiaquatBagh. The government doesn’t seem bothered by this protest.
The government’s nonchalance is very paramount, so much so that it is not willing to initiate even a cosmetic dialogue with the PPP to talk about these demands.
Rather, one federal minister has stated that Bilawal should convey his calls to the Sindh government and get them implemented by it. While looking at the PPP demands, it becomes clear that the provincial administration has nothing to do with any one of them.
The government’s total disregard to these demands has created frustration in the PPP, forcing Bilawal and others to issue recurrent hard-hitting statements against it. Federal ministers restrict themselves to retaliation.
The federal government can accept or agree to implement at least three demands, which are not very hurtful to it in order to close the political front being heated up by the PPP. As a minimum, it can explain to the PPP why it is not consenting to its demands and how far it can go to accept some of them.
One of the demands is the appointment of a full-fledged foreign minister, which is obviously innocuous and innocent. Already, an adviser and a special assistant are handling the foreign affairs as per the instructions of the premier, who is the foreign minister.
The PPP will gain nothing if a full-time foreign minister is picked up. The second demand calls for formation of a parliamentary committee on national security. It was agreed long time ago that such a forum would be created.
