The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have resolved their differences to ensure the passage of the Finance Bill 2024, ensuring the survival of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government in the near future. Not long ago, this kind of cooperation was difficult to imagine due to the two parties’ history of distrust, especially the opposite approaches to politics adopted by Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.
The PTI-led government saw a brief period of bonhomie, with Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Maryam Nawaz trying to establish normal contacts, but their efforts soon fell victim to their elders’ political narrative. Going further back, in 2006, Nawaz and Benazir Bhutto resolved their differences and inked the Charter of Democracy, admitting they were both “used against each other by the establishment.” Benazir’s tragic assassination marked a turning point in the country’s politics, with the PPP yet to recover the ground it lost subsequently.
The PPP’s 2007-2013 tenure saw another attempt at peace, with Zardari and Nawaz inking the Bhurban Accord, which led to the first coalition government of the two parties. Despite an eventual rift, their ties continued, allowing the PPP-led government to become the first in the country’s history to complete a five-year term in office. But while the two major political parties were showing rare unanimity, they were both beset by outside forces, with Yousaf Raza Gilani and Nawaz Sharif disqualified from office by the Supreme Court, preventing them from completing terms as prime minister.
The latest coalition between the PMLN and PPP has faced its first major bump in the road with the Finance Bill, with the PPP linking its support to greater “political space” in Punjab. It is too early to say this alliance will continue for five years or fall victim to outside forces, potentially derailing Pakistan’s fragile democracy. Both parties seem to be wary of such an eventuality, expressing an intent to steer the country out of political instability and toward prosperity and resilience. A mutual animosity with the PTI, now a definitive third major political force in Pakistan, would likely facilitate the unity—at least in the short term.