Amir Mateen

ISLAMABAD: It was a bittersweet moment for Nawaz Sharif.

He deserved to celebrate the occasion. Who could have thought that he would rise from the ashes, Phoenix-like, to become the prime minister for the third time – the only politician thrown out in a military coup who fought his way back?

It must have felt like a grand vindication to sit on the prime minister’s seat once again, his two sons, Hassan and Hussain, watching from the galleries. Both suffered when Nawaz Sharif was jailed and are even more committed to staying away from politics since then.

PML (N) enthusiasts had come from far off places to see the face of their leader. It made sense then when things got a little unruly in the National Assembly on the auspicious day. PML (N) workers ran amok in corridors. They broke barriers, banged doors, pushed and shoved even the very members they had come to see voting for Nawaz Sharif.

It got a little out of control when they vandalised the Press Gallery – and in the process roughed up a few colleagues. Half of the seats reserved for the media got occupied by the PML hillbillies. This provoked the Press Gallery to call for a rousing boycott. This would have been a bad omen for Nawaz Sharif: to earn bad press on his big day.

It was perhaps a first in parliamentary history that the National Assembly Speaker, the newly inducted Ayaz Sadiq, himself rushed to the Press Gallery to avert a crisis. Normally, lesser ministers have sufficed in moments of such fence-mending. It was a good gesture that curtailed the mayhem and soothed the agitated media.

It was a slight dampener for Nawaz Sharif that he got lesser votes than the Speaker. Normally it is the other way around. The only difference was that this time the MQM replaced the PPP to bring the tally to 244 against the Speaker’s 258 votes.

The PTI’s coalition partners, Jamat-i-Islami and Aftab Sherpao, also voted for the PML (N). PTI stalwarts are trying to belittle the significance of this but the sword will continue to dangle over Imran Khan in Khyber Pashtunkhwa – perhaps too early. If the partners can sit with Nawaz Sharif, what will stop them from making his life difficult tomorrow, especially if they do not get the share in bounty they expect from the PTI?

Nawaz Sharif is noticeably serious. The bitter side of his personality was reflected in his speech when he talked about dictators and how they have ruined Pakistan. Obviously, Nawaz feels responsibility for this huge challenge under trying circumstances. He must have disturbing thoughts at the back of his mind.

The office of the Prime Minister has been largely a crown of thorns. PMs have rarely been acknowledged in this country. One was hanged, another assassinated, still others exiled, disqualified or disgraced. He himself was earlier jailed and exiled. The last 14 years must have given him ample time to reflect on what went wrong and what he would like to do – or not do – when given the chance again.

He inherits a highly fragmented polity. The PML (N) is now largely a Punjab party. Minus the Independents who joined PML (N), the party won just one national seat in Karachi (Hakeem Baloch) and none in rural Sindh; another in Balochistan (Abdul Qadir Baloch) under dubious circumstances and just one in Fata from the Pashtun belt in Khyber-Pashtunkhwa.

Nawaz Sharif will have two opposing governments in Khyber-Pashtunkhwa and Sindh, while Balochistan will not be an easy course despite his wise decision to pick NP’s Dr Malick as the chief minister.

It will be quite a challenge to take a partisan and polarised polity along on crucial decisions related to economic reforms, terrorism and foreign policy. It is a minefield out there that triggers myriad questions: How will he tax traders and agriculturists who brought him to power? How will he impose the General Sales Tax, which by the way, he opposed while in government, on the already impoverished public? How will he deregulate or privatise sick units without avoiding controversy? How will he manage strong unions and excessive staff while turning around corporations?

All of this will be done where a partisan opposition will raise hell even on right measures – a tradition left by the ever-belligerent Chaudhary Nisar.

The list on foreign policy is even more daunting: How to forge consensus on crucial policy on India, Afghanistan or even Iran? How to balance public outrage against drones with a reasonable, practical policy towards the Americans? How to handle the Iran pipeline issue while not annoying the now all-important Saudis and the US?

Nawaz continues to be hounded by sycophants who want ministries, plum jobs, lucrative postings, exemptions, quotas and what not. This is the same story that brought his two earlier governments down. It will be quite a challenge to curb the lot who were given tickets not for their morality but winability. The kind who will be holding application for favours at every opportunity. Also in the wings will be the family, friends, their kith and kin, the privileged members of the Kashmiri clan and the Lahore elite that he has overly obliged already in awarding party women reserved seats.

The issue is that Nawaz Sharif’s third term begins under very different circumstances. It’s a new world out there. He returns in times when his each action will be judged under the microscope by an aggressive media, the over-active judiciary, the holier-than-though Army – not to mention the extremely agitated public; the same fickle public that was found distributing sweets after giving him a heavy mandate last time around. This may be a harsh thing to say on his first day but as Mahmood Khan Achakzai pointed out “if we failed this time we will be history very soon.”

Let’s hope for the best though.

The News

June 6, 2013