Left, right or centre?

The PML(N) supremo Mian Nawaz Sharif stirred up a hornet’s nest by making a speech on the eve of Independence Day declaring that he did not see India as an enemy. He also claimed that most Indian leaders were eager to have peaceful relations with their nuclear neighbour.

Nawaz chose South Asia Free Media Association as the forum for his controversial remarks. Although SAFMA represents a cross section of media persons, it avowedly supports good relations with New Delhi and has a liberal tilt on most social issues.

Nawaz Sharif, in the eyes of his traditional right wing mentors, committed the ultimate sacrilege by cosying up to the likes of SAFMA head, Imtiaz Alam. He is scornfully considered part of ‘the Indian lobby’- the insult of choice hurled at those who favour good relations with New Delhi.

The fact that Sharif has moved on and is no longer willing to be dictated to by his erstwhile godfathers to define his ideological parameters has proved to be the proverbial last straw. In our feudal milieu, one can forgive enemies but not renegades.

His traditional mentors and supporters in the media have predictably taken the lead in castigating him. Although Sharif went on the back foot by explaining his position after the initial full frontal attack on him, the storm in the Urdu language media, print and electronic, has refused to die down.

Ace columnist Ataul Haq Qasmi has been singled out for criticism after he defended Sharif in his column. The Editor of Urdu daily Pakistan, Mujeeb Ur Rehman Shami, also came to Qasmi’s rescue in his newspaper. Scores of columns castigating Sharif have been written in the Urdu language newspapers, far outnumbering those that have supported him.

Participants in a talk show led by Zaid Hamid, a self-styled paragon of the ultra-right and an avowed hawk on India, has labelled SAFMA as an extension of the Indian intelligence agency RAW. SAFMA reacting sharply to the charge has decided to press libel charges against the channel that aired the program and the participants.

Columnists who claim to be ‘students of the Pakistan Movement’ miss no opportunity to paint Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah as an Islamist harbouring hawkish views on India. Jinnah’s famous speech on 11 August, 1947 is either completely swept under the carpet or entirely misrepresented by them.

In the present controversy, these self-styled protectors of the Pakistan ideology have taken strong exception to claims that Jinnah envisaged cordial relations between Pakistan and India. For them, this interpretation of ‘the two nation theory’ is especially hurtful coming from a leader who is supposed to follow their stand hook, line and sinker.

It hurts even more when Sharif is defended not just by the liberal elite but also by those journalists who till now were considered kosher by these champions of patriotism.

With the exception of few religious parties and jihadist groups and their mentors in a section of the media and the intelligence apparatus, most mainstream parties are for cordial relations with the Indians. Nawaz Sharif is no exception. The PPP, ANP, the MQM and virtually all factions of the PML want to bury the hatchet and move on.

It is not the first time that Nawaz Sharif has spoken his mind about Islamabad changing its India-centric security paradigm. In his earlier visit to SAFMA headquarters in Lahore a few months back, he was not at all apologetic about his views on India and the role of the military in politics. Later, he remarked in a conversation with me that we should all realise that ‘it is 2011 and not 1911.’

Sharif in his Independence Day address at SAFMA also lamented the fact that while he brought the Indian prime minister to Lahore and signed the Lahore Declaration, Musharraf and his cohorts were busy planning Kargil. He reiterated his demand for a commission to probe into the misadventure that dealt a grievous and irrevocable blow to the Kashmir cause.

This does not mean that those who are for better relations with India favour a policy of capitulation. But no one wants war, even if it is for liberating Kashmir or securing water resources. In this day and age, using a nuclear arsenal as an instrument of policy is unthinkable. Everyone knows that such an option, if ever used by either country, could only mean ‘mutually assured destruction’ (MAD).

Sharif in the aftermath of his controversial speech at SAFMA has been absent from the country. But before his departure for Umrah he tried to thaw the criticism against him by issuing an apologetic clarification. The rub is that he is on the left of his party’s rank and file, including his brother Shahbaz Sharif. The party thinks that it is necessary to maintain an ambivalent policy towards the militants and jihadist groups in order to appeal to the conservative right wing vote.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for Nawaz Sharif to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. If he really wants a detente with India and espouse centrist policies in line with Jinnah’s thinking, he will have to take his party along. The real ethos of the Muslim League is far from that of the religious parties that, by and large, opposed the creation of Pakistan tooth and nail.

Good relations with New Delhi and the Taliban are mutually exclusive goals. Perhaps, the only way forward is to resolve bilateral disputes with our recalcitrant neighbour through negotiations. While civilians on both sides – and the governments – are making the right noises for peace, the respective military leaderships on both sides of the divide are not on the same page.

Perhaps out-of-the-box steps like bilateral exchange of military delegations culminating in visits by the respective military chiefs could prove to be the ultimate clincher in diffusing the adversarial perceptions in both the countries.

With the belated realisation that the sand is fast slipping under the feet of the ‘Nazrayati (ideological) lobby’, their attacks have become more vicious. But in a fast changing environment and the increasingly globalised world, it will be difficult to sustain this xenophobic view for long.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today