Saturday, April 03, 2010

By Amir Mateen
ISLAMABAD: The Chaudhrys of Gujrat are more a phenomenon than a political dynasty, bequeathing three ruling generations of politicians. If anyone has struck gold in Pakistan, it is the Chaudhrys.
The founding Chaudhry, Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi, according to published accounts (both local and international and which were never denied by his scions) was a simple policeman who was dismissed from service in dubious circumstances in the United India in 1930s.
But, lo and behold, seven decades later, his son, Chaudhary Shujaat, became the prime minister of a country born from the loins of a divided India. And somewhere in between, the family had become one of the most powerful and richest in the country.
Could there be a better or more beautiful testimony to this being a land of offered, created, and taken opportunities? There is no doubt that the successive generations of the Chaudhrys continue to grow smarter. One just has to contrast the first generation with the second to realise this.
Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi spent a lifetime in politics, which included a fair share of hardship and political victimisation. He spent six months in jail for opposing Ayub Khan though he later joined the dictator to become the Secretary General of his Convention League. He also confronted the Nawab of Kalabagh, prompting Ameer Mohammad Khan to warn that if Zahoor Elahi tried to replace Khan as the West Pakistan Governor, Khan would reinstate him as police constable.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto lodged a case against Zahoor Elahi for allegedly stealing a buffalo; threw him out of the National Assembly; and put him in jail on charges that are believed to be fabricated.
It was because of this enmity that Chaudhry senior reportedly took the pen used by General Ziaul Haq for signing the execution orders of Bhutto as a souvenir. Chaudhry senior was assassinated in 1981 and his heirs believe that Murtaza Bhutto, and Al-Zulfikar, was behind the murder.
The younger Chaudhrys, in contrast, have done what can be called politics of comfort. They have stayed in provincial and federal cabinets for a record 25 years topped by a brief — very brief — stint as prime minister.
The present times are the second occasion, ever, that the Chaudhry brethren have suffered opposition benches; the earlier being Benazir Bhutto’s second government when they even had to endure a few months in jail. We are told that their brief imprisonment was quite luxurious; all the prisoners and inmates were treated to dishfuls of roasted partridges (bateras).
This was courtesy a mutual deal with embedded sleepers in PPP who had been equally well looked after in their bad times. And the power they enjoyed in the Punjab during the Musharraf regime had no parallel since Maharaja Ranjit Singh ruled the land of the five rivers.
Pervaiz Elahi, after all, is the only Punjab Chief Minister to complete five years in office. He was omnipotent at Takht Lahore while the elder Chaudhry held the fortress in Islamabad. Stories abound about their unfettered powers; excessive nepotism on behalf of their relatives and the larger Jat community; their penchant for luxury and abandon; and the alleged shenanigans of Pervaiz Elahi’s son Moonis Elahi. Billions were spent on official residences; official planes were used for evenings shin dins in Dubai — the stories are endless.
But while politics and economics, it was said, were overseen by Shujaat and Pervaiz, the militant wing was said to be controlled by younger brother Wajahat Hussain. He was known as “Commander” among his private militia called, the Wajahat Force. Power was used ruthlessly.
But like all good things, this came to an end and now the Chaudhrys have to reap what they sowed from 2002 to 2008. The excessive use and abuse of ‘thana-katcheri’ has left a blazing trail of personal enmities in almost every district of the Punjab and some very angry people — the Makhdooms in Rahimyar Khan; Chaudhry Anwer Aziz and his son, Danial, in Sakargarh; the Kanjus in Lodhran; the Dastis in Muzaffargarh, to name a few. In other words, the Chaudhrys stand completely isolated from within and without.
Outside, the mainstream parties such as the PPP and the PML-N hate them to put it politely and the smaller parties like the ANP, the MQM, the JUI and the JI detest them. Inside their PML fold, the Kashmayun bloc, comprising the one who uses glasses and the other who breaks them on television screens, has parted ways.
The Chaudhrys, once known for their ‘wazaadari,’ are now seen to have backstabbed every benefactor of theirs. They betrayed Ejazul Haq whose father was their original mentor. They betrayed Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi and then Mohammad Khan Junejo by joining the Nawaz camp. They then betrayed Nawaz Sharif by joining Musharraf. They betrayed Zafarullah Khan Jamali who had proposed Shujaat’s name for the prime minister’s position. They betrayed Shaukat Aziz by issuing statements against him and holding him responsible for everything once he had exited politics.
They were the deciding factor in Shaukat not even getting a party nomination to contest in the 2008 elections (and he should be grateful to them now). Finally, they even betrayed Musharraf. They give the impression that they helped the commando general rather than the other way down. Insiders say that Musharraf had such a low opinion of them that in his early days in power that at the wedding of Tariq Aziz’s daughter, the host had to ensure that the army chief did not come face to face with the Chaudhrys. What it must have taken for the Chaudhrys to charm him, one can only imagine. But charm him, they did. And the rest, as they say, is history.
All the enemies of the Chaudhrys are now banding together for the final push against the once impregnable Gujrat fortress. Will the Chaudhrys survive this assault, is the critical question?
—Continued

The News

April 3, 2010