Shaheryar Azhar
(A commentary analyzing the conditions that led to the now open confrontation between PML-N and PPP after the Supreme Court’s verdict disqualifying Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif from electoral politics).
There we go again…
The seeds of this impending implosion were laid in the very victory of democratic forces on February 18, 2008 when a free and fair elections brought eight-years of General Musharraf’s illegitimate rule to an end. The seeds lay in the split in Pakistan’s civil society and democratic forces that took place at the very moment of their victory. These seeds were:
- Inability of large part of the ‘lawyers movement’ to realize that a credible election just took place despite their call for its boycott. That the basis of this election was none other than the ‘political deal’ hammered out between PPP and General Musharraf that they had vociferously decried. Instead of realizing this new political reality and reaching out to the other side for hammering a bargain, they opted for continuation of their confrontational politics as if they were still battling General Musharraf.
- Inability of the leadership of PPP, particularly President Zardari, and its coalition partners (MQM and ANP) to fully appreciate that ‘the deal’ itself was made possible by the struggle of the lawyers movement and other democratic forces and they also needed to reach out to them and somehow bring them in the fold.
For each to have accommodated the other, it was imperative that the NRO and ‘the deal’ itself should have been accepted on one hand and the judiciary, including Chief Justice Chaudhry restored on the other.
Of such short-sightedness are political blunders made. All those who have supported one position or the other, instead of the compromise, are also guilty. This is a collective failure on our part, not just of the political players.
Pakistan is straight heading for a train wreck and the biggest losers will be the (divided) civil society and democratic forces notwithstanding their heroic 60-year struggle.
There is still time for both sides to pull back. Relevant questions each will ask are following:
- Could President Zardari be isolated from a good portion of its leadership and thus the divide between the democratic forces bridged this way?
- If not, would the lawyers movement (with help from political opponents of Zardari) pull back its threatened ‘march and sit-in’ and offer some kind of a compromise?
- Is there a possibility of ‘cooler heads’ in both camps to prevail on each other and a middle ground found?
- Would General Kayani see in this confronation a chance for him personally to enter the corridors of power illegally and thus destroy the remaining Pakistan?
I would plead that each of us work for Option # 3 and avoid the zero-sum game that the infantile Pakistani establishment and political forces inevitably can not stop from playing.
Shaheryar Azher is the Moderator of ‘The Forum’, where this commentary was first shared.
The poison of terrorism is spreading in Pakistan and if not stopped, soon this will be another country in ruines like Afganistan.
Terrorists do not regard anyones life, neither mine, nor yours or your fathers even if he is returning from mosque!
Time for us to choose sides and fight to save whats left.
Usually Pakistanis are against american interference. now M.Zaidi wants USA to ensure Iftikhar Chaudhry re-instatement ?
The Taliban don’t care about the courts of constitution of Pakistan. They only understand force. Thats why Preadator’s and army operations are necessary against Taliban and other bearded wackos.
Musharraf Zaidi has hit the nail on the head in today’s opinion page of The News:
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=165 350
Especially the following two paragraphs:
“Faraz has been dead for six months, but he has left behind a legacy that will last much longer than the manufactured heroism of press conferences and on the coattails of real martyrs. American think tanks, experts and newspapers are now united in their embrace of the fierce urgency of Pakistan. But the starting point for real change in Pakistan is not money. It is heroism. Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is not the greatest jurist in the world. He is not the most impressive either. But he is the moral fibre of a country that has killed, denied, denigrated and destroyed its heroes consistently for over sixty years. He is no Faraz, but he has the moral fibre that Faraz helped personify through his words.”
“The Atlantic Council, Steve Coll and the Washington Post are spot on about one thing. Pakistan’s problems are not Pakistan’s alone. They are only wrong about the origin of these problems. It is not financial, or diplomatic, or ideological. It is moral. There can be no change in Pakistan without the restoration of the judiciary. No amount of money, or Predator drones can do for Pakistan and for the world, what the reinstatement of Pakistan’s morality can. The restoration of Pakistan’s judiciary and the repeal of dictatorial powers for the President are not internal matters for Pakistan. They are the seeds of an existential crisis that has the potential to upend India’s ascension as a global power, the potential to derail whatever success 17,000 additional troops might hope to achieve in Afghanistan, and the potential to flush billions of dollars of American taxpayer money into the black hole where so much else resides. Pakistanis cannot take any conversation about their country seriously, without the restoration of the judiciary at its core. It is time for the rest of the world to get on board.”
Sure meengla, being an effective administrator doesn’t make one a visionary, and Shahbaz is not known as a visionary.
However, based on common sense, the following is true:
a visionary who is also an effective administrator is better than a person who is an effective administrator but not a visionary.
And an effective administrator who is not really a visionary is better than someone who is neither a visionary nor an effective administrator.
So being an effective administrator is not irrelevant, not withstanding the PPP’s lack of interest in providing better governance.
Actually, this ‘Jiala’ can’t wait for the change of guard in Islamabad! Let the ‘Sher e Punjab’ form govts. in Islamabad and all 4 provinces. If that brings stability to Pakistan then so be it.
PS. Being an effective ‘administrator’ does not make one necessarily a good visionary ‘leader’ just as a great philanthropist does not make Sattar Edhi a nuclear physicist.
@Riaz Haq wrote:
“In the wake of the court order, the confrontation between Zardari and Sharif is likely to increase distraction from the nation’s ailing economy, energy crisis and escalating insurgency of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.”
A bigger distraction from the country’s economy, energy crisis and other problems, is not so much this political crisis, but the system that prevents these problems from being resolved. Otherwise, even when Musharraf was ruling comfortably for 8 odd years, the energy crisis was not being addressed, FATA was still burning, Swat was getting worse as Maulana FM was strengthening himself, and the economy was still being mismanaged. On the other hand, Shahbaz Sharif is recognized even by many of his political opponents as an effective administrator, and his reputation is unmatched by any of the other people who have been in charge of Punjab (not withstanding Meengla’s jiala assertion that anyone ruling Punjab for a few years is able to establish such a reputation).
This whole line of reasoning that blames political crises as the cause of our probblems, is a case of looking at the symptoms instead of the actual reasons.
There is this mindset (also visible in the original post here) that political stability is some kind of goal in itself, rather than a means to an end, and therefore, lawyers agitating for the judiciary (which could actually contribute towards solving some of the country’s problems), or any other group of activists demanding real change rather than a superficial form of political stability or democracy, are the ones preventing progress on the various problems of the country. And then, the real problem that we have garbedge people in charge of our affairs, political parties that run like dynesties instead of practising internal democracy and throwing up better leadership, an absence of a grass roots political system that would give ordinary people proper participation, a judiciary that is not allowed to function independently and provide justice to the ordinary citizens against the excesses of the ruling state, all gets treated as a distraction. It’s as if only the “blasted” lawyers showed a bit of “flexibility” and stopped agitating for an independent judiciary that could punish corrupt people, if only people stopped calling for intra-party democracy, and if only we could have political stability, problems like inflation, unemployment etc would start to get addressed.
The silent majority of the country needs to wake up and take control in its hand through brand new leadership of individuals who are competent, educated, and most importanly loyal to Pakistan. Nothing else is gonna work.
What is happening is, of course, unfortunate, but very predictable too: Punjab is the biggest prize in Pakistan. Anyone who rules Punjab for a considerable amount of time can get to establish himself as an effective ‘administrator’ and can thus rule the whole country on the basis of winning Punjab alone. A mere 5 year stint in power in early 70s’ for PPP ensured that PPP would win Punjab in 1977.
PPP is arguably the largest political party in Pakistan in terms of votes and in-arguably the only political party in Pakistan with a national presence. But it was July 4, 1977 when PPP had its own Chief Minister in Punjab–almost 32 years ago. And in those 32 years, various flavors of Muslim Leagues have ruled mostly with Army’s backing. In short, PPP is now reduced to an ugly and desperate political force. Not only it has been deprived of the crucial vote bank of Punjab but also its two most charismatic leaders (Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto) have been eliminated.
And that is the real reason for the ugly ways of the current PPP govt. The party is effectively shut out from the largest province of the country for too long time. And it is splashing around hard to regain the ‘glory’ days. They are gone. Especially they are gone because Nawaz Sharif raised ‘Jaag Punjabi Jaag’ slogan and that remains etched in Punjab.
I have little doubt that PPP and Zardari are going to be humiliated soon.
However, unless Nawaz Sharif brings Sindh into the fold of federation we are going to see an almost certain acceleration of Sindh’s breakup from Pakistan. Remember that: NS did not win a single seat in Sindh in 2008 elections and almost none outside of Punjab in that elections.
Also, remember that, PPP is the only party in Pakistan which has, willingly or unwillingly, allowed opposition parties to have their own governments in different provinces of Pakistan. That cannot be said about ANY flavor of Muslim Leagues: They have always ruled all constituents of Pakistan’s federation–even in Sindh. And that’s where I fear most.