Pak. parties gearing for show of strength

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, MARCH 20. Political parties in Pakistan are gearing to mobilise public support for a proposed rally in Lahore on March 23 in support of their demand for an immediate announcement of a time-table for holding of elections by the military government.

The rally is being watched with keen interest as it would be the first-ever street demonstration since the military take-over in October 1999. It coincides with the Foundation Day of Pakistan.

The rally is not expected to be anything more than a symbolic event for a variety of reasons. But the Musharraf Government is not taking any chances. Reports from all the four provinces suggest that the authorities have already launched a drive to round up leaders of the Alliance.

Being organised by the Alliance for Restoration for Democracy (ARD), a conglomerate of mainstream parties that took birth weeks before Mr. Nawaz Sharif went on exile to Saudi Arabia, the rally is slated to be held in defiance of the ban on outdoor political activities by the Musharraf Government.

The ARD began with a bang in November with the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) for the first time joining hands to be part of the same group. The MQM led by Mr. Altaf Hussain, considered to be the third largest political force in Pakistan, was also in it.

But alas in the last four months the ARD has lost much of its sheen. Mr. Sharif dealt a big blow to the alliance by striking a `deal' with the military government to go on an exile to Saudi Arabia. Within weeks, his party suffered a major split in all the four provinces with the dissidents considered close the military deciding to go their own way.

As if the developments on the Muslim League front were not enough, the MQM decided to part ways with the ARD after it failed to persuade the Alliance to accept its demand for incorporation of the 1940 Lahore Resolution on maximum autonomy to provinces as part of its charter.

After the departure of the MQM and the divisions in the PML, the Alliance is left with small parties that do not count much in public support.

The burden of making the rally a success is entirely on the shoulders of the PPP led by Mrs. Benazir Bhutto. Though the PPP continues to have a well-oiled party machinery in each of the four provinces, it is handicapped in the absence of Mrs. Bhutto herself from Pakistan. She has made it known several times in the last few weeks that she could consider ending her self-imposed exile and return to Pakistan if her party leaders and cadres give her the proof of their strength and determination to stand by her in any eventuality. So it would be more of a test to her party leaders rather than the smaller constituents of the ARD to prove on March 23 if the time has arrived for the return of their leader to Pakistan.

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