Dissidents’s Club

A bunch of disgruntled politicians have come together to address ‘the real issues’ facing the nation

Lahore: A bunch of disgruntled politicians from different political parties is seen raising dissenting voices against the current political structure and have emphasised that it is not capable of delivering. They have demanded that all the political parties will have to reform themselves before an effort is made to alter the existing power structure.

These ‘rebels’ have united under the banner of “Reimagining Pakistan” and have held a couple of lengthy seminars in Quetta and Peshawar, which has led to speculations that they are either doing so independently or on someone’s behest.

These dissidents are of unanimous view that all the major political parties are behaving identically — without a vision or the ability to reform — whether or not they are in power.

The seminar series was announced on Twitter by Pakistan People Party Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar who resigned his seat last November after securing it as a candidate of the. Khokhar was critical of the PPP’s policies, particularly on the issue of how Azam Swati was treated, and later resigned from his party position.

Since then, Khokhar has invited lawyers, labour leaders, journalists and civil society representatives to become part of the dialogue while maintaining that the nation has to choose between “rotten thinking and piles of problems” and “the attempt to reimagine Pakistan and awaken hope” for its destiny.

His message was also reinforced by the country’s former finance minister Miftah Ismail of the PML-N who is a member of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Miftah took some tough decisions for the resumption of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program and had fruitful talks with the IMF.

However, the London wing of PML-N was not happy with Miftah’s policies and they wanted to replace him with their blue-eyed man Ishaq Dar who they felt could have do wonders to uplift the economy.

Miftah was subsequently forced to step down by the government in September and was eventually replaced with Dar.

The other key member of the “Reimagining Pakistan Forum” are former Prime Minister Shahid Khan Abbasi who is really disillusioned with the policies of the PML-N leadership and is quite critical of their ancestral politics.

This week, Khaqan resigned from his position of PML-N’s Senior Vice President owing to his disapproval of the party policies.

But the big question remains whether these ‘rebels’ are going to form a new political party ahead of the next general elections or not.

Of course, the people of Pakistan feel extremely disappointed and disillusioned by the policies and the performance of leading political parties which have led to an anarchy like situation in the country and have brought it on the verge of bankruptcy. The inflation has soared to an all-time high while the security situation is worsening by the day.

Although any real motives behind the rebels  holding the seminars are not really known, it is being said by a few analysts that some influential quarters are backing them.

Having said that, it does appear that at the moment, these rebels lack the required resources or means to mobilise the masses around the country.

There is another point of view that the politicians joining “Reimagining Pakistan” are those who have either been expelled or are on the verge of getting expelled from their respective parties, or are unhappy with their respective leadership.

It is observed that each mainstream party has a few such dissidents, and if they gather at one platform and absorb the regional political parties, they could have the electoral strength to win a few constituencies.

Political pundits have already been calling it a gathering of political dissidents since most of the political figures have been sidelined by their own political parties. Nevertheless, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the former prime minister defended the Pakistan Muslim League (N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and urged the judiciary to undo its wrongs to the former premier.

Commenting on the concept of Reimagining Pakistan and his resignation, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told the media that he had made it clear to Nawaz Sharif about three years back that it would not be possible for him to continue with Maryam Nawaz if she was elevated to party’s top office. Abbasi recalled that he stepped down from the party office within an hour of the announcement of Maryam Nawaz’s appointment as Senior Vice President. He maintained that he would continue to stay with the PML-N until death but returning home would be his next step if the party parts ways with him.

He was of the view that his “Reimagining Pakistan” forum is not for or against any party and masses have it with enthusiasm.

“More and more people are participating in the forum’s activities,” he added. The forum is hosting its next seminar in Karachi on the 18th of February.

He, however, reiterated that the Reimagining Forum is not a political party. He urged its critics to cooperate with it instead of creating confusion about its aims and goals. “We are impressing upon the people to analyse the situation calmly and find a way out to deal with the complexities being faced by the nation.

“I am very disappointed with the country’s political system which has failed to address public problems in the last seven decades,” Khaqan Abbasi told the gathering. “Under this forum, we will utilize our efforts to find solutions to various issues.”

He noted the country’s military leadership had announced a few months back that it was not going to interfere in politics any more, but the issues that have been created still remained a huge cause of Pakistan’s current chaos and crises.

On the other hand Miftah Ismail, while talking to the media, claimed that he was still part of the PML-N. He stated that they were just saying through Reimagining Pakistan platform that let’s talk to ordinary Pakistanis and hear their grievances and issues and try and solve them. “We have started from Quetta and we will go all over the country and will bring all the Pakistanis together to find some solutions,” Miftah added.

PPP’s Mustafa Khokhar described the initiative to start the seminars as a “non-partisan effort” to serve the country and said he was planning to contest the next elections as an independent candidate from Islamabad and was not willing to join any political party at this stage.

“We have been doing non-partisan efforts and people from other nationalist, religious and mainstream political parties have come around this forum and are beginning to talk about public issues which need to be resolved,” he said.

“We need long-term plans and major reforms, but sadly none of the political parties is talking about those reforms to save our economy,” he added.

Keeping aside the justifications of the participants of “Reimaging Pakistan” political circles believe that the initiative to launch the national debate over the country’s outstanding problems by the dissident politicians will ultimately pave way for a new political party which was about to be launched ahead of the general elections.