Adil Najam
Before the elections Dawn News had done a series on who should become the next Prime Minister of Pakistan. I am not sure what the result there was. But I do know that the question is real again. Much more real.
Speculation is rife. Theories about. The more we talk about it, the more confused we get. The game is interesting, but is it just a game?
There are too many questions, and too few answers.
- Will we get a grand ‘coalition of [nearly] the whole, which will have 3/4th majority and could replace the President and rehabilitate the Constitution?
- Will PPP and PML-N part ways - either because PML-N will choose to be the ‘friendly’ opposition or because they both realize they cannot work together?
- What about the PML-Q? They are also talking to the PPP. Is a PPP-PML-Q coalition on teh cards?
- They say Amin Fahim is over, is he?
- Will we get a PM from the Punjab - Gillani, Qureshi or Mukhtar - to highlight that PPP is not just a ‘Sindhi’ party? If so, will this is permanent or temporary while the party waits for Asif Zardari to be elected from somewhere?
- With Maulana Fazlur Rahman doing his ‘meetings’, is he still in the game?
- What about the ANP? Could we see a consensus candidate emerging from there in the ruling coalition?
- And what about the provinces. It seemed that things were clear - PML-N in the Punjab, PPP in Sindh, ANP in NWFP and PML-Q in Balochistan. Will that actually be?
And you could answer any of them in the affirmative depending on what you already think and which news reports you have been reading. Any ideas what might actually happen?
In a recent post on ATP ‘temporal‘ had asked who should become the next president of Pakistan. We ask a similar question today but the intent this time is not normative, but practical. The question, this time, is not who should become the next President, but who you think will become the next Prime Minister, given the way the cards have been dealt with the last elections.
so, Koun Baney Ga Wazeer-i-Aazm? Any thoughts?
I hope I am wrong, but sometime I get the feeling that the National Assembly might be sent packing soon after it meets.
Nawaz Sharif is on a collision course with Musharraf, the lawyers’ movement continues to keep the pot on the boil, the law and order situation, particularly in the NWFP, is getting from bad to worse, and Musharraf continues to be advised by Malik Qayyum and Sharif uddin Pirzadah on legal matters and the Chaudhries on political matters.
So, we should all keep our fingers crossed.
” Will we get a PM from the Punjab - Gillani, Qureshi or Mukhtar - to highlight that PPP is not just a ‘Sindhi’ party? If so, will this is permanent or temporary while the party waits for Asif Zardari to be elected from somewhere?”
I am very disappointed by your words here….frankly this comment is beyond absurd. The party that swept the nation from Karachi to Khyber needs to pander to the province that strangles the rest of the country? Why did you not mention Baluchistan or NWFP? Too radical? Doesn’t make the cut for intellectuals?
How many seats did PML-N win in Sindh? Baluchistan? NWFP?
Don’t kid yourself.
Impeach Musharraf
Aitzaz Ahsan or Shah Mahmood
The best choice is Aitzaz Ahsan…. we can do with Yousuf Raza Gilani in the interim
I could not have recognized half the faces up in the post, specially those most likely to become PM, and yet in a few days one just might become my country’s Prime Minister. IN some ways that is deeply unsatisfying.
It seems that the provincial governments will not break the way the table suggests.
The PPP has been talking to PML Q and also MQM and it may be that they want the center and all four province governments and they just might make it.
@Adil Najam,
not one single of your photos is worth confidence,
just look at their face-appearances looks like prof
thugs. Sorry !!