Naseebullah khan
It was obvious. The things were not being dealt democratically. A last death blow to the Unity among the party leaders and workers was the departure of Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar__ a sole reconciliatory fogure in the party.
Chairman Pakhtunkhwa milli Awami party Mehmood Khan Achakzai has canceled the membership of two times ex_provincial minister and central finanace secretary Ubaidullah jan Babat and an ex__senator and central spokesperson of the Party Raza Muhammad Raza. Both these leaders had four decades affiliation with the party. Both expelled leaders have alleged that the main reason of the expulsion was their opposition to the ongoing policies of the party leadership who has bypassed the central committee and party central congress in policy formulation.
Currently, there is a deep silence in the party even the sympathizers and colleagues of both expelled leaders are reticent. A party source who has been the part of reconciliation told me that efforts to stop party chairman from expelling the two dissenters had failed at the eleventh hour. After the election of 2013, things were not going smoothly.
The disintegration cemented more when the brother of Party Chairman was appointed as governor. Further cracks took place when many seasoned party leaders including Raza Muhammad Raza were not nominated in the election of Senate in 2015. Sources claim that both Ubaidullah Babat and Raza Muhammad Raza were stunt opponent of the alliance of the PKMAP with the PMLN and JUI. Time and again Ubaidullah Babat had talked against it in public meetings. He was strongly criticized by the party chairman recently when he said that donot compel me else i will become the foreign minister of the Taliban. This episode reflects how democratically parties in Pakistan mainly the Pashtun nationalists are weak.
How in an abrupt manner the affiliation of four decades are declared null and void? How space for dissent is being shrunk? This move exemplifies how deep the loss of Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar is for the PKMAP? The internal sources claim that this will not confine to only these two leaders. This may be just a tip of Iceberg. The possibilities are that the dissenters group which is in majority in the party leadership might resist in near future or even when the general elections are conducted.It looks that individuality is haunting country,s political culture as a whole. The issue is not with the PKMAP alone almost all political parties in Pakistan have been suffering fractions where the dissenters are not appeased with the way the parties are being run and controlled. Regrettably, convening parties Congresses so that to talk about controversial issues and analyse and formulate policies is no where in our political culture.
These sorry state of affairs reflect that something is primarily wrong with our political landscape that has further deteriorating democratic norms in the country.The expulsion of these two leaders will serve no benefit for the party. It will dent the narrative and democratic struggle of the PKMAP more. The best option, still is reconciliation. If reconciliatory approach is not adopted the fears are that further cracks and expulsions in the party are in pipeline. Sanity must prevail.
If farsightedness is not taken into account, the sufferers will be the nationalists themselves and the winner will be fundamentalism and Mullaism in the Pashtun politics that have already strongly gripped the nation.