Amir Mateen

ISLAMABAD: The PML-Q clarification (carried in Saturday’s edition) accuses me of several things but basically proving the main point that I had made: that the Chaudhrys of Gujrat have no tolerance for criticism. The moment anybody says anything against them, my exact words, “they kick up so much fuss that people get confused about facts.”

Their charges are actually funny especially the part where they ask me to spend my energies on working for Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s return rather than muse over Hamesh Khan’s trip home. If my memory serves right, the honourable Chaudhrys of Gujrat were very much in power when the poor woman was sold away by their government to the Yanks. Talk of being ironic.

I have also been accused of writing against them on the behest of their political rivals. Funny again. If it’s PML-N, they have obviously not read that profile preceding this one and as for the PPP, I have yet to write my profile series on the PPP, so I should be judged only after its publication. I am neither a friend nor a foe of the PPP. But the PPP is hardly a rival of the PML-Q. The PML-Q did try to flirt with the PPP to make a coalition government in Punjab at the time when Governor’s rule was imposed in the province; though the communication level of the mighty Chaudhry was a lowly personal assistant of Asif Zardari.

It is also true that this time around the PPP has not been keen on holding the previous regime accountable; largely because they are so much stuck in the rigmarole of the NRO, which is more about their own accountability than of others. It is said the PPP was, in relative terms, similarly soft on the Chaudhrys in their previous government, which was the only other time they were in opposition. I am not accusing the Chaudhrys of any corruption, at least for now, but only saying that they should be brought under deeper scrutiny. That’s all. They have been in power for 25 long years, more than half of it under dictatorships. The Chaudhrys are the only notable political family in Pakistan, which has the distinction to serve all three dictators while occupying the front rows. This may have provided them well-entrenched tools that make it difficult to assess their rags-to-riches story fairly. And, like the Sharif brothers, they should learn to take pride in their humble origins. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain beats Bill Clinton’s struggle in life because he rose to become the prime minister despite being the son of a simple police functionary.

About their other major rival, the PML-N could not have motivated me to write against the Chaudhrys. I have written a four-part strongly worded critique on the party recently. The PML-N, I must say, has absorbed it with a lot of grace, which shows the party has matured over the years. They have, as they say, learnt to take it on the chin. Maybe because they do not any Mushahid Hussain in their midst who cannot resist taking out ‘karakas’ to please his bosses.

Shujaat and Mushahid make perfect bedfellows or so the wily Syed had the naïve Chaudhry believe. Here is my theory on them. Shujaat, wise in conventional politics, was doing well until Mushahid came along. Insiders say the Syed never leaves his side from dawn till the Chaudhry hits the bed. He had the Chaudhry so much in awe about his Georgetown English, the clash of civilizations, non-proliferation theories and ‘yahood-o-hanood mishmash’ that the elder Chaudhry sahib obviously started believing that the Syed was crucial for his survival. Along the way, he lost his political basics. Many say this has been the single largest factor in the PML-Q fall. The Syed would still have the Chaudhry believe that the party is on its grand march to a glorious victory and that the enemies continue to fall by the way side.

This brings us to the accusation that the piece was an attempt to stop the PML-Q from going from strength to strength. Facts belie the PML-Q claims. The party may already have reduced to a bunch of political orphans looking for new political umbrellas. Most of them have rebelled against the Chaudhrys. The party has, on paper, 53 members in the National Assembly. As many as 29 members showed their resentment against the Chaudhrys by opposing Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and chose Faisal Saleh Hayat as their parliamentary leader. Faisal, it should be remembered, accused the Chaudhrys of human trafficking while he was Interior Minister. One minority and seven female members stayed around only because the party president has the authority to cancel their seat. A petition against Marvi is pending at the Election Commission because she is on a Punjabi quota but her home province is Sindh. Donya Aziz, soon to be clubbed with Nausheen Saeed, also faces the charges at the EC that they are Islamabad residents adjusted on Punjab quotas. The like-minded group, popularly known as ‘Kashmayun bloc’, claims to have 16 members. The figure stands disputed but MNAs like Hamayun Saifullah, Israr Tarin, Arbab Zaka, Riaz Fatiana, Ahmadan Bugti, Saeed Zafar, among others, emanate anti-Chaudhry vibes. Sumera has been reported lost and missing in the PML-Q annals. Others like Farooq Laghari hang out not for their love for the Chaudhrys but because he has nowhere else to go.

Similarly, the Senate is all but lost for the Chaudhrys. Of the 21 PML-Q Senators, eight of them–including Salim Saifullah, Haroon Akhtar, Mohabbat Khan Marri, Gulshan Saeed and Fauzia Fakhruzaman–seem blatantly rebellious. Senators Tariq Azeem, Seemi Zaidi, Saeed Hashmi, Jan Jamali and Mohammad Ali Durrani have distanced themselves from the Chaudhrys. Shujaat may just have four or five Senators like Naeem Chatha, Khalid Ranjha, S M Zafar and Wasim Sajjad. But then insiders say the lawyers among them are getting increasing number of government cases, which says something about their absolute loyalty.

The PML-Q has already lost 53 of 84 Punjab MPAs to the likeminded group. Come elections, many others want to jump the fence. Interestingly, the leader of the rebel gang Tahir Ali Javed had cases of the biggest outbreak of hepatitis in the US and yet Pervaiz Elahi protected him as his, of all the ministries, Health Minister. Now, Chaudhrys are pushing the very cases against him that they blocked earlier. The situation in other provinces is equally dismal for the party. Herein lies the myth of PML-Q’s progression to victory. The PML-Q is more than welcome for this debate but I must say that Mushahid’s copy was much better when he was in our ranks. Anyway, tomorrow we move on to the ‘glorious’ Musharraf era and the roles various political parties played in it. (Continued).

The News

April 4, 2010