Saturday, May 17, 2008

Who's Stupid Now?

Based on three important factors, namely (a) that the PPP and PML-N were structurally each other's biggest rivals for political supremacy in the country, (b) that the PPP and PML-N had different preferences vis-a-vis the reinstatement of the judiciary, and (c) that the PPP did not mathematically need the PML-N to get a workable majority to work in the Assembly, I predicted the day after the February 18 elections that:
The PPP will form an alliance with the PML-Q in the centre and in Punjab.
Well, well, well. Look what we have here:
ISLAMABAD: Thinking of new political alignments, power circles in Islamabad are engaged in fresh calculations to provide two-thirds majority for the government by cobbling together a PPP and PML-Q alliance.

“The PPP and the PML-Q, minus the PML-N but including others, guarantee two-thirds majority not only in the National Assembly but also in the Senate,” a key Q Leaguer said while talking to The News here on Friday.

The PML-Q leader, constantly in contact with the presidency, also revealed that President Pervez Musharraf was ready to back the PPP either by extending the Q-LeagueĆ­s support in the form of forward blocs or through some other face-saving arrangements.

[...]

Our main purpose is to keep the PML-N out of power and support the PPP both at the Centre and the Punjab province one way or the other,” the Q-League leader said while quoting President Pervez Musharraf.

Kudos can be sent to asusualahsanwasastuteandbrilliant@gmail.com. This makes up for everything - my terrible record at predictions deserves to be wiped clean.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Screw you, yaar!

Fine it was an okay bit of prescient thinking. "Okay" because I'm sure a few other people figured the coalition might not be as sturdy as the initial clamourings would have led us to believe. And a PML-Q coalition would be the next logical solution for PPP. But i'll admit, I had lost all hope for that.

But you cant FINALLY get one right and claim that it wipes your entire sordid slate clean. It wasn't that original a thought to begin with.

Ahsan said...

Hahahahaha ok. I certainly didn't read the idea anywhere else before I had written it down, in newspapers or blogs.

But I am probably giving myself too much credit here (as I am wont to do), simply because I think, at this point, we're still in "political posturing" mode more than "substantive coalition building" mode. Nothing concrete has happened yet, and perhaps might not happen at all.

My biggest regret, prediction-wise, is the old Imran Farhat one from our South Africa tour averaging less than 15. That one still hurts.