Amir Mateen

Islamabad: The Parliament seemed to have become irrelevant as the game of political brinkmanship was being played in Lahore where battle lines were drawn, gloves off and the knives were out. Shakespearean, isn’t it.

One thing was sure though. If the super pious brigades of Imran Khan ever came into power in Islamabad they too would have political battles outside the Parliament – with the kind of precedents the Skipper is setting.

The resounding question in the Parliament was: should Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri, and their hordes be allowed to come to Islamabad? In the Senate, PPP’s Aitezaz Ahsan argued that the government should feel confident enough to allow the PTI/PAT to roam around freely. If they did anything stupid and were perceived as vandals it would be their loss, saying, “let them carry their cross.” However, as things stand, Aitezaz saw the warring sides in a confrontational mood “which could only help the referee to intervene.” Aitezaz also felt that the last thing that the ‘referee’ wants is to see the likes of Imran win in this battle – not after his opposition to the operation against Taliban.  “And revolutions don’t come when you have the very people against whom revolution is required standing on your left and right,” the one-time revolutionary gave his expert opinion. It was difficult to say whether this was about Tahirul Qadri who is usually flanked by Chaudhary Shujaat and Sheikh Rasheed or Imran Khan who keeps Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Jahangir Tareen on his sides. Aitezaz should know about such rallies from his experience as interior minister when five people died because of police firing while protesting against the blasphemous book of Salman Rushdie.

The chief proponent of the opposing view was Mahmood Khan Achakzai. While twitteratti wonders about his whereabouts, Chaudhary Nisar, we are told, is happy that the Sharif brothers have taken over – at least he would not be blamed this time. Achakzai believed that the protestors should be stopped outside Islamabad at all costs. He had many what-might-happen scenarios to back up his suggestion. The biggest argument was that how could Imran Khan assure what Tahir ul Qadri might do, even if we forget about terrorist activities. Qadri has been quite vocal in asking his supporters to respond to the law enforcing agencies in kind and has got virtual baton-wielding militias equipped with bulletproof jackets, gas masks and what not. Who knows what his agenda might be.

When he switches to English in his press conference he is definitely not talking to Pakistani audience. It is only in Pakistan that such frivolity can sell so easily.

The PML, we are told, genuinely believes in a larger conspiracy involving two former spooky heads who have devised the strategy. The story goes that there will be a three-year caretaker government to sort out things after large-scale violence is engineered. Now, this was quite fashionable in the 1990s. We are not sure about the authenticity of this intelligence but the story tellers give lot of details about who met whom, and where. But then this might just be the feeler to goad the PML (N) government into over-reaction. We already see the signs of that.

Imran Khan may have scored a few brownie points in his election-rigging story but elements of a cock and bull story abounded as well. It was a little hard to digest that 100000 teachers helped rigged the elections just because Shahbaz Sharif had regularised them or 200 judicial officers got sold off at Justice (Retd) Khalil Ramday’s dinner party. It was also unfair to accuse half of bureaucracy, particularly a well-reputed officer like Tariq Bajwa, of being partner in election fraud in his capacity as finance secretary. Imran can check out from PTI’s DMG specialist Shafqat Mahmood that Bajwa brothers are among those rare officers who are known for their integrity.

But his other accusations including the serious charge of publishing fake ballot papers at the last minute should be investigated. However, the accusations can’t be judged through media trial. Also, the PML (N) could also accept PTI’s major demand of recounting in four constituencies if this averts a dangerous situation. But this is not likely to pacify Imran Khan. For the sake of argument, even if Nawaz Sharif dissolves the National Assembly to appease the mighty Khan this would not resolve the political crisis. Why should Balochistan dissolve its Assembly? In fact, Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Maalick was quite vocal in expressing its rage at the recently held National Security Council meeting with General Raheel Sharif sitting in the wings. Maalick had a point that Islamabad had no right to decide the fate of Balochistan. And why should Asif Zardari have his Sindh government dissolved? For a start, Imran Khan can go ahead and dissolve the KP government to double check his confidence that his PTI would return with a bigger majority.

Tailpiece: Imran Khan repeatedly accepted that he was naïve (seedha aadmi) in his Press conference and yet also claimed to be a sharp politician who could dig into the real truth behind the election rigging. Kaptaan Sahab, you could be either stupid or intelligent or even intelligently stupid but not all three at the same time. Hope you got my point. It’s politics ….

Tailpiece 2: Iftikhar Chaudhary can take the credit that he surpasses his nemesis Pervaiz Musharraf in many ways. First, it was just Musharraf who hated him for dislodging his rule. He had a huge battle with Asif Zardari and then Nawaz Sharif was uncomfortable with him because of his daily judicial interventions. Now, he has got Imran Khan as his biggest opponent. Has anybody left around you, Judge Sahab?

The News

August 12, 2014