Interior Minister Rehman Malik seems to have fallen on bad times, and for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – and even the country – his fall could not have come at a worse time, when the ruling party is badly struggling to establish its writ in Karachi.
Reports from both Islamabad and Karachi do not bode well for him, suggesting that he is in troubled waters with all eyes on how he wriggles out of the situation other than using the fact that he is a close friend of President Asif Ali Zardari to save his skin for the time being.
Sources said that the federal minister, who holds the senior-most position in the cabinet, is no longer taken seriously by his own colleagues, let alone other stakeholders in the government. Even Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani takes him for a ride more often these days. Imagine the prime minister calling his interior minister by his nickname ‘Rehman Baba.’
“We often hear the prime minister saying let us see what story Rehman Baba has got for us today,” a cabinet member told Pakistan Today, adding that the prime minister stressed on the words ‘Rehman Baba’ and ‘story’ sarcastically.
Another cabinet source said that recently some members objected to Malik’s briefing in English on the Karachi situation in a cabinet meeting, after which the prime minister had to ask him to speak in Urdu and keep his English briefing for later in the day.
Reportedly, President Zardari, too, is not happy with the way Malik handled things on the political front, as if running out of patience as well as faith in the interior minister once known to be his closest aide in the cabinet, who had also earned appreciation for being quite active on the law and order front in the past.
No wonder the president decided to personally deal with the situation in Karachi, withdrawing Malik from the scene of action recently. To PPP leaders from Sindh, the interior minister is already an anathema whom they seem unable to tolerate anymore as evident from Senior Minister Zulfiqar Mirza’s outburst against Malik, asking him to stay away from Karachi.
Sources said Malik’s habit of talking too much before the cameras and in behind-the-scenes meetings was not at all helpful in bringing down the temperature in Karachi. Rather, they said, it was creating misunderstandings among the stakeholders. However, government insiders say that though Malik is not up to the challenge posed to the government in Karachi, it does not mean the PPP is in a hurry to get rid of him.
According to them, the PPP leadership has little choice but to bear with Malik for the time being until the situation in Karachi returns to normalcy and a suitable replacement is found.
‘Rehman Baba’ losing his charm
