Even when his vote bank was essentially confined to the Pashto-speaking areas, Aftab Sherpao was never a nationalist in the sense the word 'nationalist' is generally understood in Pakistan. As younger brother of the late Hayat Mohammad Khan Sherpao, a founding member of the Pakistan People's Party, he remained committed to countrywide federal politics.
And when he parted company with his first-love PPP he saw to it that he is taken not as a renegade but only as another version of the PPP and named his new party the PPP (Sherpao). But no more; he is now a Pakhtun nationalist, his party has been renamed as Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and the green in the tri-colour party flag has been replaced with white. In his inaugural speech at the founding ceremony of QWP, in Peshawar on Wednesday, he called upon the Pakhtuns irrespective of their affiliation with North and South Pakhtunkhwa or Karachi, to unite for their common rights, and wanted them to 'show solidarity with the Pakhtuns living on the other side of the Durand Line'. Accepted, politics is all about one's constituency and golden promises are made to the potential voter. Given the peculiarity of issues that tend to obtain at the time of a certain election, the nature of incentives keeps changing, ranging from political freedom to national security to economic hardships. That the upcoming election should throw up regionalism as an attractive vote-catching incentive for the voter is not entirely new but the way it's coming up is indeed a telling blow to the already tenuous, tottering state of federalism in Pakistan.
However, Aftab Sherpao is not the first to raise the banner of nationalistic politics in the country; in fact he is a belated convert to this brand of politics. Such politics drawing sustenance deriving strength from the unmet aspirations of smaller federal units has acquired popularity over the time and more and more political stakeholders are turning to it for electoral success. So much so that the first challenge to Sherpao's ownership of Pakhtun cause has come from none else but the ANP. The ANP now has critical federal stakes, but it has lost no time in refuting his claim to be the Pakhuns' 'milli rehbar' (national leader). As to who speaks for the voters in interior Sindh a tough debate is now in process between the PPP and Sindh-based nationalist leaders. The situation in Balochistan is not very different, if not more pronounced. In Punjab, the nationalist politics flourishes under the rubric of 'more provinces'. Should that division take place the nationalists in other federal units may draw, albeit vicarious, satisfaction - given the basic fault line that province of Punjab is bigger than the rest of the federation put together and therefore it prospered at the cost of others' in development and prosperity.
One would like to welcome Aftab Sherpao's Qaumi Watan Party to the nationalists' camp. After all what is the issue if there are smaller parties with their specific agendas? But, it's a Catch-22 dimension to this phenomenon; how will it play out one would keep his fingers crossed. There should be no problem with what the nationalists ask for; their demands are within the ambit of law and constitution. But the problem is how to meet them. The required paraphernalia, particularly the one laid down by the 18th Constitutional Amendment, is not yet on the ground, and there is not much hope that it would be there anytime soon. The Centre may like to hand over rights and powers given to the provinces, but it's not seen to be doing it. Naturally, this reluctance on the part of Islamabad tends to fuel anger that thanks to the nationalist forces growing street power is already up by many notches. And should that state of inertia persist the anger and frustration can overflow and adopt aggressive posturing vis-à-vis the federal system. In that, as with all others, that kind of politics, lays the challenge for Aftab Sherpao to strike a delicate balance what is asked for and what is realistically achievable. We hope he would be able to do that given that he has been federal minister twice, once for Water and Power and then for Interior.