NEWS ANALYSIS – Shah Mehmood Qureshi finally broke his silence on the issue of Raymond Davis with a demeanour of a demagogue, emulating Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who had parted ways with his mentor President Ayub Khan after developing differences on the (now former) Soviet Union-mediated peace agreement between Pakistan and India in Tashkent.
Though the two situations are quite similar to draw an analogy between what Bhutto did and what Qureshi appears to be accomplishing politically, the former had a personal charisma to embark upon an independent political journey besides already having established himself as a leader who could mobilize the people against the then all-powerful president and the latter does not appear to have a chance to emerge the Bhutto way in an already highly polarized political environment.
After Bhutto, as a foreign minister, had made a tacitly-worded speech in the assembly showing his dissent to the Tashkent agreement, Ayub asked him to go on leave. Bhutto agreed but when he left Rawalpindi on a train he was not only feasted by West Pakistan Governor Nawab Amir Muhammad Khan of Kalabagh, who too was estranged with Ayub, but he was also overwhelmingly greeted by crowds of people at every railway station.
It was after Bhutto’s failed attempt to join the National Awami Party (NAP), that he had decided to form the PPP. Qureshi, who had quit the PML to join the PPP almost a decade after Bhutto was hanged, dropped some broad hints of following in Bhutto’s footsteps calling him his ideal. He also praised Benazir Bhutto and admired her leadership. However, he did not say a single word of praise for the present PPP leadership but emphatically pronounced to remain a part of the party.
Mindful of an expected disciplinary action against him, Qureshi did not mince his words and categorically stated that blanket diplomatic immunity could not be given to the American killer of two Pakistanis. The position he took on the issue of Raymond Davis was clearly aimed at winning the hearts of Pakistanis, beseeching them to rise as the time had come to live with self-respect. He skillfully presented his case in the court of the people and took them into confidence that it was not his personal opinion but it was a unanimous view of the foreign office, law ministry representatives and a “third institution” that the American double-murderer could not go scot-free.
Recalling his achievements as a foreign minister and claiming that he had enjoyed the highest level of respect in the Foreign Office, Qureshi unmistakably suggested that the decision, which he also admitted was the prerogative of the leadership, to transfer him out of the Foreign Office was in fact to pave the way for blanket diplomatic immunity to Raymond Davis under duress, as the pressure from Washington on the Pakistani government to release him without going through the legal rigmarole was mounting.
Qureshi’s press conference appears to have preempted the government’s plan not to let US Senator John Kerry go back empty-handed. The significant effect of his media talk was that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had to take a middle ground suggesting an out of court settlement under the Qisas and Diyat Law, which was a part of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) – an indisputably acceptable-to-all solution.
As Qureshi passionately spoke on Davis’ issue and its implications for the country, he did not show all his cards like Bhutto had done after the Simla accord was signed between Pakistan and India, saying that he had many secrets to disclose at a later stage. That stage, however, never came. Showing a paper, Qureshi said he would not go into the details which, he declared, would be made public at an appropriate time – move against me and I will expose you all was the understandable message that he conveyed to the party leadership in case of any action against him.
It is, however, before time to suggest that Qureshi has the potential to become another Bhutto but as the bankruptcy of leadership at all levels, the political analysts suggest, may make him a leader of national stature to gel together the “old guards” of the party and the sidelined associates of Benazir Bhutto to challenge the authority of Asif Zardari. But his detractors consider him with an equally convincing argument a loner and a goner.
Though the history of the PPP is replete with many examples of such rebels eating the dust at the end, the situation today is, however, not the same with the PPP reshaping it under Asif Zardari.
