The suspension of Enver Baig’s basic membership is a tale of hatred and betrayal which has spread its tentacles to the very core of the Pakistan People’s Party.
President Asif Ali Zardari despised him and Baig’s long time friend Amin Fahim abandoned him lurching after the death of Benazir Bhutto and the rise of Asif Zardari. Baig’s basic party membership has been suspended for meeting PML-N President Nawaz Sharif. Expected to join the PML-N soon, Baig has to deal with this pre-emptive strike by his mother party. Long before her death Benazir had appointed Baig chairman of the party’s foreign affairs committee. Baig used his office and networking in the diplomatic community to defend Benazir against all misgivings and misperceptions.
Background interviews with Baig and other PPP leaders help one understand that he had failed to judge which way the wind would blow. Instead of joining the so-called Zardari camp, he preferred to stay with Fahim, whom he befriended some four decades ago.
Fahim himself was overoptimistic of becoming the prime minister. Zardari had something else in his mind. He showed the door to all those who might have challenge his control over the party in any manner.
After 2008 elections, a trusted aide of Zardari approached Baig with a prepared press statement. He wanted Baig to sign and issue with his name the statement containing damaging remarks against Fahim. Baig refused. The aide insisted but got the same reply. Zardari, who was vying for a greater role in national politics for himself, was furious.
The party co-chairman made his anger perceptible and noticeable on more than one occasion – sometimes in a rather ridiculous manner. In one party meeting, the co-chairman sent a note to Baig to stop wearing colourful ties.
Baig miscalculated that his friends, including Fahim would persuade Zardari to reconcile. Firstly, Zardari was in no mood for reconciliation. Secondly, Fahim himself was drowning and needed a straw. President Zardari exhibited his wrath against Baig by not awarding him a ticket for the Senate in 2009. Later, he was forced to leave the party office. Some of his friends tried to patch the torn relationship with the president, but nothing could be fruitful. Baig’s overture to Raiwind diminished the chances of any possible rapprochement with President Zardari. He was probably hopeful to get the PML-N support in the next year’s Senate elections. He would prove wrong. The PML-N carries its own burden of liabilities. The Sharif brothers would never annoy their blue-eyed boys by awarding ticket to a PPP escapee. Baig’s over-optimism may lead him to a close alley.
Some well-wishers of Baig had advised him to stay away from Raiwind. They had told him not to tarnish his political career by joining hands with ideologically different people.
They argued sooner or later President Zardari would rethink his attitude and may realise Baig’s innocence. By joining the PML-N, Baig would commit a political suicide. The Senate ticket is a distant dream and beyond the realm of reality – and that too at the cost of jeopardising his political career.
President Zardari disliked Enver Baig’s neckties
