Establishment accused of stepping up contacts

The powerful establishment has been accused of stepping up contacts with pro-establishment politicians. Politicians belonging to different political parties told Business Recorder that the establishment is in contact with several pro-establishment politicians, which is fuelling an air of political uncertainty.
The lawmakers who declined to be named told Business Recorder that uncertainty is reflected as around two dozen PML-N MNAs abstained from the vote on the critical 24th Constitutional (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in National Assembly on November 16, 2017. The bill envisaged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to carry out fresh delimitation of constituencies and reallocation of seats on the basis of the recent provisional census results. According to the National Assembly website, 265 MNAs attended the session but only 243 of them voted.
In the Senate the same bill was deferred till Monday (today) due to the absence of two-third lawmakers with only 58 of the 104 senators were present.
A PML-N lawmaker accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of being in the establishment's good books, saying none of the seven senators of PTI were present during the voting. Two, out of a total eight MQM-P senators were present and out of eight senators from Fata, only two were present.
Pakistan People's Party's (PPP) Sherry Rehman, Sassui Palejo, Murtaza Wahab, Dr Karim Khawaja, Hari Ram, Gyan Chand, Rozi Khan Kakar and Yusuf Badini; Ishaq Dar, Mushahidullah Khan, Sardar Yaqub Nasar, Professor Sajid Mir, Zulfiqar Khosa, Naimat­ullah Zehri and Agha Shahzaib Durrani of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N); Awami National Party's (ANP) Shahi Syed, Sitara Ayaz and Zahida Khan; and Robina Irfan of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) were also absent during the voting from the House.
Rumours are rife in the capital that over 70 MNAs belonging to the ruling PML-N are waiting for a signal from the establishment to proceed as and when needed. Former Prime Minister Zafaullah Khan Jamali along with Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination Riaz Pirzada, who had switched to PML-N from PML-Q, along with scores of other MNAs, has already expressed reservations at Nawaz Sharif's re-election as PML-N president.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly hinted that the establishment had a hand in disqualifying him and during media talk outside the court room recently he openly accused the 'courts of being dictated to punish me' - a not so oblique reference to the alleged establishment's role in his removal.
Lieutenant-General Abdul Qayyum (retd) of the ruling PML-N told Business Recorder that Sharif was not accusing the 'establishment but foreign agencies that were not happy with the way the former prime minister put the country on the path to prosperity within a short span of four years'.
However, he acknowledged that the establishment is engaged in politicking but "to tackle the foreign agencies like RAW, focused on destabilizing Pakistan, through political entities like the MQM in Karachi and Baloch separatists in Balochistan who are creating turmoil. It is necessary to purge all political parties from traitors, for which role of establishment becomes crucial, he added.
To a question about establishment's role as a mediator between PSP and MQM-P, as revealed by PSP chief Mustafa Kamal, General Qayyum admitted role of agencies of meddling in political matters, saying 'it becomes inevitable for the state agencies to step in when the hostile agencies of enemy country [India] launch a war through some political parties'.
Talking to Business Recorder Raza Haroon of PSP said that the establishment is holding talks with all political parties in the metropolitan city as they want lasting peace in Karachi which, he acknowledged had been restored after a three year operation by law enforcement agencies.
"We held talks with MQM-P as we do not want an anarchy-like situation to prevail in Karachi, which is the economic hub of the country. We are ready to hold talks with anybody for the sake of peace in the city so these things must not be taken out of proportion," he contended.
Senator Colonel Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi (retd) of MQM-P said that the establishment is 'very much in' as usual, and admitted that it is not a new phenomenon in the country's politics. "There are 5 to 6 cases in Supreme Court on this and in 1990, the establishment gave out money to politicians to manipulate elections...so the same old tricks are still being played," he added.