Pointing fingers

Mian Nawaz Sharif doesn’t have to tender another apology to the so-called defenders of the Ideology of Pakistan since his recent address in Lahore had no mention of his desire to make peace with India. All that he spoke about was the need to save the country from the threats it is facing.

The occasion was the balloting of yellow cabs to be distributed among the jobless youth. This scheme, unlike sasti roti, low cost Ashiyana housing and Danish School projects, is something of which he would like to take ownership. Perhaps he thought there was no point in getting into the controversy by talking about other populist measures which had burdened the Punjab government with huge overdrafts.

Mian Nawaz is convinced that the kid brother’s qualities are so exceptional that, however difficult an enterprise might be, his wisdom would see to its efficient management and his ability would ensure its accomplishment. But he avoided giving credit to the Punjab government for some of its ill-conceived projects. It was all the more important to do so when he was to target the PPP’s misgovernance and its leadership’s continuous patronage of corrupt elements.

There’s no disputing his assertion that the repeated disruption of the democratic process in the past has virtually pushed the country to the edge of a precipice and it is now being viewed as a failed state. And if Mian Nawaz hates Musharraf, it’s not just because he had not returned the Rs 130 million he had squeezed from Hamza Shahbaz despite Sharif brothers’ acquittal in the hijacking case, but because the despot’s capitulation to foreign powers had plunged the country deeper into crises.

The PML(N) Chief doesn’t tire of claiming that his heart bleeds for the victims of target killings in Karachi but he only made an oblique reference to the rising tide of violence in the country’s commercial hub. He didn’t point a finger of accusation at the particular ethnic group responsible for the breakdown of law and order. Maybe he understands that the Frankenstein created and patronised by the military dictators had become too huge to be dealt with.

There’s no denying that Mian Nawaz during his second term as PM had dismissed the then Chief Minister Liaquat Jatoi for his administration’s failure to arrest the assassins of Hakeem Saeed, thus paying heavy political price for the MQM’s exit from the coalition. But he didn’t discuss it any further. For it could have made him do a lot of explaining for his party’s recent move to patch up with the MQM – once declared by him a terrorist organisation he would never want to shake hands with – only days after it had pulled out of the governments at the federal and provincial level.

The PML(N) Chief’s actual target was the PPP leadership which he accused of having failed to resolve the crises inherited by it from the dictator three-and-a-half years ago. He trained his guns at President Zardari for extending patronage to the corrupt. And he specially mentioned Makhdoom Amin Fahim’s example, who was not sacked from the cabinet despite the fact that the government had recovered Rs 30 million from him. This he said to substantiate his point that corruption by the state functionaries is not only being overlooked but those found guilty are also pardoned.

Mian Nawaz understands that public speaking is an art and political leadership doesn’t have to resort to aggressive posturing or rebellious poetry in order to sound more convincing; he needed no extra shouting to dispel the perception that the PML(N) had only been playing the role of a friendly opposition. And he came up with a reasoned argument to establish his point that it could not have been the case as the PML(N)’s government in the Punjab was dismissed unceremoniously and the province put under governor’s rule. Not just that, the PPP leadership, he asserted, had gone to the extent of getting him and his brother disqualified from contesting election.

That having been said, the PML(N) also cannot escape the blame for excessively indulging in politicking when the country is facing multifaceted challenges both internally and from abroad. If the PPP leadership can be subjected to scathing criticism for its alleged involvement in corrupt practices and its inability to properly run the country, then the prevalent lawlessness, lack of governance and all that’s happening in the Punjab on Mian Shahbaz’s watch should not be overlooked either.

The PML(N) leadership is getting desperate to dislodge the PPP from power rather than stepping up efforts to bring all political forces on board to cope with the challenges confronting the nation. Just because Mr Zardari was visiting the flood-ravaged areas of Sindh shouldn’t have been made an excuse by Mian Nawaz to cancel his visit and stay back in Lahore.

The writer is Executive Editor, Pakistan Today