ISLAMABAD: Amid the upheaval plaguing the country’s major political parties, a former military ruler announced on Friday the formation of a grand political alliance that would “deliver the people from the mess” created by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

But former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf’s claims about his new platform — the Pakistan Awami Ittehad — seemed premature as leaders of the parties that were named as members of the new alliance said they were “weighing their options”.

The alliance was announced after a consultative meeting between representatives of around two dozen political parties, including the Sunni Tehreek, Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and Mr Musharraf’s own All Pakistan Muslim League (APML).

Addressing the meeting via telephone, Mr Musharraf took direct aim at his opponents and claimed that major political parties were disintegrating, adding that PML-N and PPP had caused irreparable damage to the country.

Former president says MQM-P and PSP may join his alliance

“Nawaz Sharif has no political future,” he said, a boast that drew a sharp reaction from the former prime minister’s daughter Maryam Nawaz. In a tweet, she said that “[Musharraf] made the same claim once before, but had since been made an example of”.

Terming the short-lived alliance between the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) “unnatural”, Mr Musharraf said he would never demean himself by leading any parties formed on a linguistic basis.

However, it was possible that the MQM and PSP would join this alliance, he asserted, urging the Mohajir community to shun the disgraced MQM brand, which had become ‘toxic’.

Interestingly, when the MQM and PSP announced their decision to merge a couple of days ago, Mr Musharraf was the first leader to publicly welcome the rapprochement. In a video message shared by the official social media account of the APML, he expressed his delight over the merger of two Mohajir factions.

Refusing to comment on whether elections would be held in 2018 or not, Mr Musharraf said that the military and the judiciary should put “Pakistan first” — a pun on the Urdu title of his autobiography.

If elections did not solve the country’s problems, he said, both institutions should adopt some other approach “to put Pakistan on the right track”.

According to a statement issued by the APML, the 23-party alliance selected Mr Musharraf as its head, Pakistan Muslim League-Junejo leader Iqbal Dar as general secretary and APML’s Dr Mohammad Amjad as coordinator.

AAMIR YASIN adds: Contradicting the APML’s claim that an alliance had been formed, PAT general secretary Khurram Nawaz Gandapur told Dawn that his party was not part of the alliance, even though the two were in contact with each other.

“A representative of our party attended the meeting in Islamabad since it was called for the sake of consultation to chalk out a future plan of action. The decision to join the alliance will only be made after consultations with Dr Tahirul Qadri,” he said.

“I have talked to Mr Musharraf and told him it would be premature to form an alliance now, since many things are still changing in the political scenario. The ruling PML-N may soon split into different groups when the Hudaibya Paper Mills and Model Town cases are re-opened in the coming weeks,” he claimed.

Once that happened, many would leave the PML-N and Mr Musharraf would be in a better position to rope in all the dissidents of the ruling party, he claimed.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2017