Amir Mateen

ISLAMABAD: With the media overly focused on the PPP, Nawaz Sharif’s PML has been sneakily enjoying the best of both worlds – power in Punjab and opposition in Islamabad. The about turn on constitutional package has exposed the larger problems of the PML-N’s decision-making apparatus. Nawaz Sharif’s quirkiness may just be the tail of the elephantine mess of politically incorrect trends and contradictions developed in the last two years.

The PML-N has become increasingly Punjab- some say Lahore-centric. It did not get enough seats in the last elections from provinces other than Punjab because, admittedly, it did not get enough time to campaign. It continues to take other provinces for granted. As if they are bound to fall in the PML-N lap just because of the PPP’s dismal performance and the PML-Q’s virtual ouster from electoral ring. This may not be true. The PML-N took credit in the past for bringing ethnic, religious and nationalist parties in mainstream politics. It was partners with parties like the MQM, the ANP, JUIs, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the BNM, the BNP at one time or another. It stands totally isolated now.

It has a war with the MQM; a tussle with the ANP over the naming of Pakhtunkhwa; tension with JUI as Maulana Fazlur Rehman feels more comfortable with its coalition partner Asif Zardari; fight with Jamaat-e-Islami as proven in the recent Lahore by-election; and no political relations with Baloch nationalists who are in coalition with the PPP in Quetta. It has become more a symbol of national division than cohesion.

The isolation is less because of policies than the arrogance that oozes out of top PML-N leaders. They are so confident about a repeat of 1997 when they got their famous ‘heavy mandate’ in the next elections that they think they do not need anybody. A culture of sycophancy that was the hallmark of their two earlier governments, contributing to their fall, has already seeped in. With a vengeance, they say. A former principal secretary who thought he was ultimate in sweet talk said he was outsmarted recently by a former ambassador who advises Nawaz on foreign policy, rather badly I must say. Nawaz was musing that ‘if I became the prime minister’ when suddenly his words were hijacked by the ambassador. “How can you say ‘If,’ Prime Minister,” he protested so loudly that everybody was taken aback. Nawaz tried to move on but the ambassador did not let him proceed until he conceded that he was the prime minister, already was and will always be. He was addressed as prime minister during exile and, they say, he still likes it. The joke in the party is that his best adviser is his masseur because he knows which words to say by pulling which nerve. And there are lots of ‘political malshias’ around. The likes of man mountain Sohail Zia Butt are welcomed in the court because they provide comic relief to the ‘PM’.

A policy of convenient amnesia is practiced where principles are increasingly compromised at the altar of expediency. The PML like-minded group of 53 Punjab MPAs, basically Q turncoats, have been conveniently accepted. All of them have SHOs and tehsildars of their choice appointed in their area. Shahbaz Sharif stirred hype by throwing out nearly 6,000 ‘corrupt’ officials when he became the CM. Most of them, particularly ranks below DCOs and DPOs, are back as desired by local MPAs and MNAs. So much for the good governance. This has contributed to the wave of unending corruption and crime in Punjab, making it easier for Taliban to consolidate their hold.

Turncoats Rana Nazir and Sahi brothers have already been accepted. Negotiations were held for accepting many more when Governor’s Rule was imposed in Punjab. It is quite possible that Chaudhary Shujaat, Mushahid Hussain, Khurshid Kasuri and virtually everyone except Sheikh Rashid and Pervaiz Elahi might be taken back before the next elections.

This prompts contradictions. The dictatorship of Musharraf was bad but not that of Zia, as the recent electoral victory of Zia League candidate proved in Bahawalnagar. The PML-N did not put up a candidate. The PML-N’s ideology, if any, is as much confusing as the definition of the right and the left in Pakistan. Traditionally, the party was right of the centre. Lately, it is swinging ‘both ways’ to the extreme. Claims were made to the true legacy of Bhutto.

Nawaz Sharif, we were told, was practicing on Bhutto’s speeches; Shahbaz Sharif started reciting Jalib and Faiz in public. It should take more than Jalib’s recitation to be a progressive, particularly for someone who cannot even declare his wives.

The swings to the extreme right have been worse, if not dangerous. The country and its army are fighting the biggest fight of their history against terrorism. Yet the second biggest party which is also the government in waiting extends a muted support. The PML-N has never declared the war against terror as the biggest issue of the country. Like it or not, this has been the single largest encouragement for the Taliban. Talibanisation is growing and bomb explosions are ripping through the entire Punjab. Yet we wait for a heavy crackdown on madrassas or militant outfits with a bated breath.

Who is the biggest influence on Nawaz Sharif for his drift towards extreme right? Some say it’s his speechwriter who was given an honorary sash at Akhora Khattak’s famous madrassa that produced half of the jihadis. Others say they have lots of men like MPA Saeed Elahi who profess to be ex-jihadis with continuing links. Half of Nawaz Sharif’s team, like Raja Zafarul Haq, Chaudhry Nisar, Javed Hashmi, was groomed in the Jihadi nursery of Ziaul Haq. Still others allege that it’s Nawaz Sharif who is more Taliban than all of them. But then this may be an exaggeration about his quirky aberrations. A group of journalist friends, while seeing him in Prime Minister’s House, asked him why he had got all billboards with women pictures removed and banned shampoo ads. His response was that they were showing women shampooing hair, which incited ‘wrong ideas’ (Ganday Khayalat) in minds. “Mian Sahb, if they will not show hair in a shampoo ad, will it be your or my bald heads,” Mohammad Malick of The News could not resist saying. Mian Sahb was bald till then.

No harm in being on the right side of ideology. Jamaat-e-Islami opposes the army operation and it’s a declared position, which, by the way, got them mere 3,000 votes in Lahore. Nawaz Sharif should declare whatever position they have on such issues. It should not trickle out only in slips of the tongue.

Pervaiz Rashid was asked who was the biggest ideologue in the party. Nawaz Sharif, pat came the answer. Hum Bhi dekhain gain.

The series continues.

The News

March 28, 2010