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For Babar Awan, PPP’s payback for failing to pay back

In a recent interview with Dawn News — where anchor Asma Chaudhry either failed to persist with crucial questions or was just being a beholden host — Babar Awan poured scorn over his thunder stealers. Only these were not his greatest hits; perhaps, only an album of hits and misses — mostly the latter.

The one important reference where he chose to be less economical with the truth considerably diluted the impact of an interesting diatribe.

Responding to the now-famous pique of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani about how “a woman (Nargis Sethi) stood up for him when no man came to his rescue” — perhaps, a more meaningful reference could not have been made about Awan’s refusal to appear either as a witness or even submit an affidavit with the Supreme Court about advice he rendered against writing a letter to the Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against the president — the former law minister simply said the PM was referring to the entire cabinet, not him.

Some cheek, that. However, that is what makes Awan an interesting copy.

It’s a fascinating story — from a phenomenal rise as the president’s go-to man to a spectacular fall from grace. He has been stripped of all party positions that had made him one of the most powerful people in Pakistan.

The ruling PPP removed Awan from the vice presidency, membership of the party’s Manifesto Committee (meaning he can no longer attend the Central Executive Committee meetings), and Finance Secretary. He had already been removed as CEC member.

There’s no guarantee he will even remain senator. Regardless, it still makes for an incredible cycle of humiliation in a matter of months for a man, who could do no wrong as the president’s “right hand man”.

Awan’s refusal to appear as a witness or even submit an affidavit before the Supreme Court caused the-then prime minister no small embarrassment, leading to his conviction in April and eventual disqualification last month.

Ironically, Awan was so gung ho about not following the court’s directive that in a news conference last year, he proclaimed such a move would be made “over my dead body”. Then, pray, why did he decline to bail out the prime minister, who literally, put his job on the line for the president and their party?

It is speculated that Awan withdrew because he feared the worst after the Supreme Court cancelled his license as a lawyer in an ongoing contempt case.

The former law minister habitually flew off the handle at the higher judiciary with provocative statements in cases filed by or against the PPP. Finally, the law of averages appeared to catch up with him when the Supreme Court hauled him up last January for allegedly bringing the highest judicial authority into disrepute.

In April, Awan apologised but an incensed bench was in no mood to forgive him just because a reluctant word of contrition had been expressed, and that, too, after his counsel initially, argued that charges should not be framed when the accused had thrown himself at the mercy of the court.

Awan probably, reckoned saving his ‘bread and butter’ had priority over party loyalty — in hindsight, a fatal ‘political’ mistake. He had stirred the hornet’s nest once too often and far too indulgently, just to please the president at the court’s expense.

In fact, many are inclined to suggest privately, that it is payback time; hence, the court keeps on adjourning the proceedings only to make its bete noir grovel.

Intra-party humiliation is one thing, but Awan is also up against rebuke from the judiciary as well as public ridicule from his political opponents. PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif and his aides never fail to chide the PPP about the kind of fate that Awan has been dealt with — it is almost as if he has become the first reference point in how to be hoist with one’s own petard.

The Sharifs had long been Awan’s pet peeves, with the latter employing choice analogies bordering on the risqué, and often painted with doomsday scenarios for them.

The one sticking point even within the party rank and file remains how Awan came to pick up the case of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s ‘judicial murder’ sent for judicial review last year — 32 years after Bhutto was controversially convicted and hanged over disputed charges of abetting the murder of a political opponent.

The deep-seated resentment stemmed from how Awan (he was a student leader then) had actually distributed sweets over Bhutto’s execution. But he swiftly rose through the ranks in the Nineties, when he presented himself to fight a clutch of corruption cases against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto after she was ousted from power, and the current president.

However, the greater irony will remain in how Awan first chose to be more loyal than the king himself and, then, pulled up feet of clay, just when it was time to ‘sacrifice’ the short term for the prized long term — all this in a party whose leadership covets and rewards personal loyalty over everything else.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad. He may be reached at [email protected]