ISLAMABAD: Things could not have been messier at the National Assembly as everybody seemed to be talking to everybody else to resolve the PTI-PML(N) impasse.

 

Political parties were in a competition of sorts to acquire the trophy of brining about a breakthrough between the warring parties. The painful reality was that nobody wanted to go home in the first leg of their five-year tenure to beg for votes again. The PTI members too felt the same way when asked in private but were too afraid to say that on the mighty Khan’s face. Imran seemed to have turned as monarchial in attitude as Nawaz Sharif is accused of. Imagine what it would be like if he actually becomes, sadqay jaawaan, the prime minister.

 

PTI insiders say he is surrounded by so many sycophants, mostly of Saraiki brand, that those who dare to dissent are shrinking by the day. He stuck to his stance on the Taliban for the whole year until he was outsmarted by events. Where are those nightmarish scenarios that were supposed to happen in case of operation against the Taliban, one may ask.

 

For all we know things are, touch wood, much more stable after the ongoing operation. But the PTI rally might provide the terrorists the very opportunity they might be looking for to turn the tables. It was obvious that nobody was thinking about the military effort that is being made in Fata. Jamaluddin Mehsud, a member from Waziristan, tried to highlight the plight of the IDPs but there were no takers.

 

The political war zone seemed deadlier than the military one as dark clouds of hellish possibilities hovered all over the place. The news about Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s coming to Parliament turned to be, once again, untrue. It made sense as there was nothing for Nawaz to say in the assembly. Until the filing of this report the PTI was stuck to its Get-Nawaz Sharif maximalist position. Since Nawaz was not likely to give up all possibilities were on the plate.

 

Positivists who believed that “this too shall pass” were a small minority. The argument was that an intervention might be the last thing on the military mind. The khakis are so much stuck in Fata, KP and Balochistan that they can’t afford to expand. And anybody had any other ideas the logical step would be to let the politicians stew in their own soup—at this stage, that is. It all depends on how the PML-N government will handle it.

 

Typical of our Pakistani mindset, the conspiratorial minded ruled the roost. Possibility of massive violence was serious. The early news about Tahirul Qadri cadres taking the law into their own hands sounded ominous. PML-N insiders genuinely believed that Qadri was part of some foreign conspiracy. So far, Imran Khan had avoided joining hands with Qadri as he knew from his last experience where the Maulana was coming from. Remember a certain retired Air Marshal of ‘latifa’ brand claimed that he was a go-between among Aabpara, Imran and Qadri.

 

But Shah Mahmood Qureshi made it a point to side with Qadri’s case. And then Qureshi went on with his oxymoronic statement asking the PTI cadres to encircle (gherao karrain) the police station to recover their motorcycles while remaining ‘peaceful.’ How naïve! We all know what happens when politicians order their young cadres to encircle police stations.

 

The PML-N and the PTI were locked into a typical blame game. Qureshi accused the Punjab government of strong arm tactics by place 900 road-blocking containers, tapping phones, blocking emails and what not.

 

And the government defended their position by saying that it was doing what the governments had to do in such conditions. So agitated was Qureshi that he refused to finish his speech despite reminders about prayer times, saying “prayers will start only when I shall sit down. Good that no mullah took notice of that otherwise he could be charged with blasphemy.

 

Obviously, if violence broke out massively this will be a chapter similar to what Pakistan went through in 1970 and 1977. Politicians argue to this day who did what in the creation of Bangladesh and the Zia Martial Law.

 

Whatever the case, the PTI movement can be about anything but election reforms. It is too serious a business to be left to the goons in the streets. The fundamental lesson of our electoral history is that anybody who could leverage anything, anywhere in all elections never shied away from doing that. And the parties who were out of power always had less leverage except if they were backed by the establishments.

 

Khursheed Shah believed the Election Commission had as much power as they have it in India but it’s all about exercising it. Senator Raza Rabbani concurred with a slight variation that the Indian Election Commission might have more powers but the real issue is about our mindset. Our politicians, bureaucrats and khakis have the habit of manipulating the system.

 

What Imran may not have taken into account is that the establishment is a big stake-holder in electoral reforms. Many accuse the last army chief of rigging the Election Commission by breaking away its three members. Just imagine the results in Balochistan in fair elections.

 

While the widow of Beant Singh, the security guard who killed Indira Gandhi, could be elected in India we can’t imagine candidates backed by Brahamdagh Bugti in Balochistan. So it’s a serious debate that needs serious reflection. But then this is the last thing on Imran’s mind. Chances are that he would be blamed more than others if large-scale violence broke out and, as goes our favourite cliché, if the system got derailed.

 

Tail piece: The ongoing political situation is already melodramatic but when the onus of its description falls into the hands of Shah Mahmood Qureshi he can beat his namesake Mustafa Qureshi in the film business.

 

I am told this talent runs in the family as he is distantly related to Indian actor Saif Ali Khan and by default his wife Katrina Kapoor.

Published on: thespokesman.pk

Date: Saturday, 09 August 2014