Khalaai Makhlooq in panic? M Ziauddin
Where
is the PTI groundswell? It was clearly discernable much before we had entered
the 2013 election season. The surge began with the PTI’s October 30, 2011,
public rally in Lahore. And it persisted much after the elections were over,
lasting perhaps until about a few months after the July 2017 Supreme Court
verdict disqualifying Nawaz Sharif for life.
Then
the tide seemed to be turning on its head, first tentatively and then gradually
and now it seems to be in full swing — a sort of a tsunami! Nawaz is drawing
big crowds — crowds that seem to be as charged as those that one continues to
witness in PTI’s rallies. On occasions, the PML-N rallies appear much more
high-spirited than those that are being staged by other mainstream political
parties.
Of
course, those that pull big crowds at political rallies are normally not known
to have been equally successful at pulling voters on election day. But nobody
had expected Nawaz to last for so long after he was implicated in the Panama
Papers scandal in April 2016.
Nawaz
hasn’t just lasted since and survived every onslaught in these 24 months. He
also seems to be giving his party’s main rival in the upcoming elections — the
PTI — a run for its money.
The
PPP seems to have already lost its political relevance, thanks largely to Mr.
Zardari’s politics sans the PPP’s characteristic populism.
No PM once he or she had been ousted from office
even less unceremoniously than Nawaz has lasted in the country’s political
arena for so long. Not at least since General Zia ousted Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
No
PM once he or she had been ousted from office even less unceremoniously than
Nawaz has lasted in the country’s political arena for so long. Not at least
since General Zia ousted Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
One
vividly recalls the personal and political fate of ZA Bhutto and his party once
he was removed from power. Mohammad Khan Junejo — General Ziaul Haq’s second
victim — had disappeared from the scene never to come back.
Benazir
Bhutto had to wait in the wings with no sign on the horizon of any revival of
her political fortunes for almost three years after she was shown the door by
Ghulam Ishaq Khan. Nawaz met the same fate after having been sent home by
General Kakar following his first stint as the PM.
When
Benazir was ousted from office for the second time, her party was reduced to an
insignificant Parliamentary presence and the former PM was blatantly hounded
into self-exilem, seemingly forever. NS was brought back to replace BB,
not because in the meanwhile the PML-N had regained its non-existent popularity
but because there was no other mainstream political party in the country
seemingly compliant enough to serve as the establishment’ political front. And
when Nawaz was ousted by General Musharraf and sent into exile it had appeared
as if Nawaz had finally reached the dead-end of his political career.
Indeed,
Musharraf seemed to have effectively taken care of both BB and NS for almost
eight long years. It was perhaps only when the US felt it was time for Pakistan
to undergo what is known as regime-change that both the exiled leaders could
return home.
And
this is when Pakistan’s proverbial extraterrestrial elements (Khalaai Makhlooq)
were pressed into service in earnest by a Musharraf desperately trying to ward
off the US machinations. As a result, BB was assassinated within months of her
return; and understandably, the assassins and those who hired the killers seem
to have become as elusive as the Khalaai Makhlooq (KM).
Next
the KM pressed into service by his successor — not Zardari but the other one —
took care of Musharraf, who is now cooling his heels in Dubai seemingly for all
times to come to escape being tried under Article 6 for taking liberties with
the Constitution.
Of
the three PMs that were elected to the office one after the other during
Musharraf’s regime, Shaukat Aziz seems to have decided not to come home for the
time being for obvious reasons. Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Chaudhary
Shujaat, too accidental to be of any political consequence, seemed to have been
left to wither away on their own.
This
short review of the careers of the past PMs of this country since the late
1970s makes it doubly difficult to comprehend the seeming political groundswell
that the nation is witnessing for the Nawaz led PML-N on the eve of 2018
general elections.
Since
his ouster, Nawaz has been doubling for both the government and the opposition
— for the government with Shahid Khaqqan Abbasi as the front man and for the
opposition, in his own personal capacity conceived as a victim of the KM, which
he has successfully cast as the real villain of the piece.
Seemingly
effectively conned by his ‘double game’, the real opposition — the PPP and the
PTI — is seen attacking Nawaz the ‘victim’ instead of Nawaz the ‘incumbent
government’. This has enabled the ousted PM to win all the sympathy and empathy
he needs to remain vitally relevant in the country’s political arena.
In
fact as of today, Nawaz seems to have rendered both the PPP and the PTI
(notwithstanding its 100-day plan) totally irrelevant in the context of the
forthcoming elections. Instead he has set the game in such a manner that the
people in general see it as a battle between the all -powerful KM (even the
most unversed among the general public knows what the term means) and a
‘powerless’ Nawaz — a sort of contest between David and Goliath!
It
is not in the character of Punjab to defy authority. But on occasions it has
acted out of character. The last time it did so was when it brought Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto to power defying the then authority. Now once again Punjab seems to
be acting out of its character. And this seems to have caused the KM to panic
forcing it resort to dirty tricks against the independent media despite the
fact that most of the mainstream media seem already to have been successfully
manipulated.
The
writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad. He served as the Executive
Editor of Express Tribune until 2014
Published
in Daily Times, May 24th 2018.
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