At Daggers Drawn

Differences and mistrust between the coalition partners has split Punjab government in two

As the coalition of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) sustain their rule in Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab, simmering internal rifts between the two are now coming to fore. In practical terms, Punjab is now being controlled by two parallel secretariates – the one at 7-Club Road, which is held by PML-Q’s Chief Minister, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, and the other at 90-Shahrah-e-Quaid Azam, which is under the control of PTI’s Aslam Iqbal, a Senior Minister in the Punjab cabinet.

The split was formalized following a growing concern within the PTI leadership that CM Pervaiz Elahi was not accommodating their party workers’ demands. Development funds were being doled out to the districts where the PML-Q had its vote bank, ignoring those where the PTI was dominating.

Chief Minister’s Secretariat at the 7-Club Road has certainly become a center of activities for PML-Q workers, and where activists of PTI workers say they are not welcome. This is in spite of the fact that while the PTI holds 176 seats in a house of 371, the PML-Q only has 10.

Concerns are naturally growing within the PTI circles over the “lopsided” distribution of development funds. It is being alleged that PML-Q leader and the son of the Punjab chief minister, Chaudhry Moonis Elahi, is trying to resurrect his party which has already suffered divisions due to a family-rift. To achieve this, he is spending lavishly out of the provincial kitty to push development projects in areas of PML-Q’s interest.

The PML-Q workers hailing from Gujrat, Narowal, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahaudin, Wazirabad, Gujranwala and Jhelum have almost occupied the CM Secretariat, and are influencing all kinds of development schemes and official transfers and postings. CM Pervaiz Elahi has released Rs 100 million to house and feed these workers with sumptuous quail-and-partridge (teetar-batair) dishes.

PTI workers across Punjab are also disappointed with the release of development funds amounting to Rs 30 billion and Rs 10 billion respectively for the districts of Gujrat and Mandi Bahaudin, the latter being the ancestral town of Principal Secretary Muhammad Khan Bhatti.

Apart from this, hundreds of lower-grade jobs have been created in these districts which are being filled on the recommendations of PML-Q’s local leadership. The aim is to help these leaders strengthen their political standing in the targeted constituencies.

A PTI member told this scribe that it seemed as if Ch Pervaiz Elahi was the chief minister of Gujrat division only, because he was least bothered about the development of other districts of the province.

During the 2018 elections, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won a majority from Gujranwala division, while the PTI was a runner-up, with many of its candidates losing to those of PML-N with a thin margin. Now, since the PTI is part of the coalition in the province, those runners-up expect their party to get them development schemes so they can perform better in the next elections.

But the PML-Q leadership is more keen on boosting the chances of its own potential candidates in those constituencies instead of helping the PTI runners-up.

The PTI leadership from these districts has met with the party chairman, Imran Khan, and has apprised him of the “discriminatory” policies of PML-Q leadership. He has been told that the “biased attitude” of CM Pervaiz Elahi is causing a revolt-like situation in the PTI. Things have reached a point where Senior Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal has had to leave two consecutive meetings of the chief minister half-way to register his protest.

During his recent visit to Lahore, PTI chief Imran Khan tried to appease the annoyed PTI workers by holding an emergency meeting with CM Pervaiz Elahi. It was decided in the meeting that the PTI workers will be given a separate secretariate to discuss and resolve their issues. Subsequent to this meeting, Aslam Iqbal took over the control of chief minister’s office at 90-Shahrah-e-Quaid Azam, from where he has started to pass on PTI’s complaints to the provincial bureaucracy. This office is now working parallel to 7-Club Road from where Chief Minister Elahi and Moonis Elahi operate.

In that meeting, a four-member committee was also set up to deal with and resolve any controversies with the chief minister. Those named as members of the committee included Shafqat Mahmood, Aslam Iqbal, Sibtain Khan and Hassan Khawar.

Meanwhile, Punjab Finance Minister and a PTI member, Mohsin Leghari, has alleged that CM Elahi has allocated billions of rupees for the development of Gujrat and Mandi Bahaudin without taking his office in the loop. He claimed that the CM office is directly interacting with the Secretary Finance and no file is being routed through his office.

He met with Imran Khan in Islamabad on Thursday before last to apprise him of the situation. He said he would resign if the CM’s Office continued to ignore him. Sources claimed that Mohsin Leghari is not alone, that there are many other PTI ministers having identical issues.

In addition to this PTI-PML-Q infighting, differences between the federal government and the Punjab government are multiplying with every passing day. A recent addition to the conflict is an order issued by the federal government to remove the Vice-Chancellor of Lahore’s Government College University (GCUL) from a four-member research committee.

The dispute followed a speech Imran Khan made at an event organized by GCUL. He was invited to the event, titled taleem aur hunar saath saath, as a special guest by Vice-Chancellor Dr Asghar Zaidi. During his speech, Mr Khan made strong critical remarks not just about the federal government by also some heads of the institutions, including the military.

The controversy was sparked when PML-N Vice President, Maryam Nawaz, demanded in a tweet that action be taken against the GCUL VC for inviting Imran Khan and thereby offering the premises of an educational institution for a PTI gathering. Following the tweet, the Federal Ministry of Education issued a notification removing Dr Asghar Zaidi from the research committee. Maryam also conveyed to the Punjab Governor, Baleeghur Rehman, to use his powers as the Chancellor of GCUL to remove Dr Zaidi from the VC’s post.

Meanwhile, the federal government also wrote a letter to the Punjab government, asking it to relieve the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore, Ghulam Mahmood Dogar, from the post. But the provincial government has refused to oblige on grounds that it amounts to interference in provincial affairs, and has directed the CCPO to continue in office.

In the backdrop of these centre-province tensions, some federal ministers have started making claims that the PTI-PML-Q tensions may soon lead to the fall of the Punjab government. In a recent television interview, federal minister Khwaja Asif claimed that they were in contact with a number of PTI members who were willing to “change loyalities when required”.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has made similar a statement, saying that they have managed to pull together the numbers required in the Punjab Assembly to topple the government, adding that they are just waiting for the Supreme Court’s verdict on their review petition pertaining to party dissidents in the parliament.

However, PTI’s Fayyazul Hasan Chohan says that the PML-N had made similar claims a month ago but could not produce a single PTI member on their side. He was of the view that no PTI member would risk his political career by changing loyalties at this juncture.