Ill-timed adventures

Little effort to walk the talk

Both Imran Khan’s announcement for the August 14 march on Islamabad, and histrionics of TuQ (Allama Tahirul Qadri), are ill timed. While the country is engaged in an existential war, trying to grapple with its blowback, the opposition (or at least a good part of it) is flexing its muscles to oust the government.

The Sharifs led government is also in a quandary. The prime minister wants a revolution trough elections begging for more time. In the same breath he claims that his government has been elected for five years and hence those opposing him are against progress.

The trouble is that the government itself has nothing much to show for in its rule now for a little over a year. Like in the past, a vice regal style bordering on adhocism, cronyism and lack of transparency still rules the roost.

Despite paying lip service to democracy and consensus building, there is very little effort to walk the talk. State mayhem inflicted upon defenceless supporters of TuQ at his headquarters in Model Town Lahore a fortnight ago betrayed a complete disregard for democratic norms.

It was this sad incident that gave out of job politicians the impetus to go full throttle for a grand alliance. The Chaudhrys of Gujarat who had already met TuQ in London just before his foray into Lahore courtesy a diverted Emirates Airlines flight were ecstatic at this window of opportunity.

With Sheikh Rashid Ahmed the one-man demolition squad who has never hidden his hatred for the Sharifs in tow, the Chaudhrys are regular visitors to the TuQ’s Minahjul Quran headquarters.

The Chaudhrys are another case of gross mishandling by the Sharifs. They could have easily been brought on board, had the Sharifs tried hard enough. After the Sharif family’s negotiated exile to Jeddah in December 2000 they were left in the lurch.

With a little help from General Pervez Musharraf’s establishment the PML-Q — the military’s quislings’ party — was carved out of deserters from the leaderless PML-N. In our feudal milieu enemies are forgiven but not renegades.

The Chaudhrys are another case of gross mishandling by the Sharifs. They could have easily been brought on board, had the Sharifs tried hard enough.

The Sharifs hate the Chaudhrys precisely for this reason. They incidentally also complain of victimisation especially at the hands of Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab chief minister.

The Chaudhrys however have cut a pathetic figure trying to fish in troubled waters. The other day Qadri made another somersault at a press conference attended by Ch Shujaat and Pervez Elahi as well.

After suddenly declaring that forming a grand alliance or toppling the government was not his agenda, he left the presser in haste. The visibly embarrassed Chaudhrys were left in the lurch not knowing where to look in front of the assembled media.

Imran Khan has also thrown cold water on those who want to piggyback on his popular support by ruling out a grand alliance of opposition parties. The PTI chief is well aware that he will gain little traction by joining hands with out of job politicians who are keen to get on his bandwagon come what may.

The PTI has a lot of introspection to do as well. Its problem is its sense of identity. The party is a motley collection of first time voters from a relatively affluent and educated stratum of society who are still shocked that the tsunami did not translate into enough seats in the parliament to facilitate their leader becoming prime minister.

On the other hand, unsurprisingly, there is a vast swath of traditional politicians in the party who had jumped on the IK bandwagon after seeing his tremendous capacity for crowd gathering and to enthuse his audience.

The Khan’s threat to resign from the assemblies has had an adverse reaction from the opposition, especially in the KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) Assembly and within his own party. Those elected on his ticket – some for the first time — would naturally not like to resign, unless there is complete chaos in the country.

The talk of the whole elections being rigged, somewhat cathartic, resonates well within the PTI. There might be pockets of rigging and election fraud, but declaring the whole 2013 general elections process a sham and a fraud is engaging in hyperbole of the extreme.

If the election process was engineered as claimed by Imran Khan and his supporters then PTI should not have formed its government in KP. Having done that, it should concentrate on making the province a model of good governance rather than running from pillar to post to muddy the legitimacy of the system.

This does not however mean that that the Khan’s deadline for a recount in certain constituencies should be swept aside by the government. Rather than washing its hands off the whole matter by claiming that this is the job for the election commission, it should actually facilitate the process.

As a result of whole hullabaloo about launching a movement to oust the government, there is not enough focus on the military operation in N Waziristan now escalating to boots on the ground, and the plight of the IDPs. The body politic and the media are too obsessed with petty politicking rather than on an issue of much more serious import for Pakistan.

Unfortunately, criminal delay bordering on complicity over the years gave the TTP the space to spread its tentacles all over the country and beyond. Even the present government, unlike the military leadership post Kayani, wasted precious time in aimless and fruitless negotiations with the terrorists.

The PTI has a lot of introspection to do as well. Its problem is its sense of identity.

But better late than never, now a military operation has been launched the government taking full ownership. Unfortunately erstwhile supporters of the Taliban are dragging their feet — deliberately or by default.

Ironically these opposition politicians are pro establishment as well. The only saving grace about TuQ is that unlike the rest of the lot he has genuine anti Taliban credentials.

But unfortunately the rabble-rouser Allama with a helping hand from the electronic media has only added to the chaos by his return from his Canadian abode. His talk about ushering in a revolution from his bulletproof bunker is fuzzy to say the least.

If the end objective is to oust the Sharifs through sheer street power it is an ill-timed move. This move can only succeed through an extra constitutional military intervention.

Certainly in the present scenario the military simply does not have the space for such an adventure. But hypothetically speaking even if it does, out of job politicians will still remain jobless.

Certainly Imran Khan has nothing to gain if the system is packed off clarifying on a number of occasions that he does not want to rock the boat by engaging in unconstitutional adventures.

But his no show to visit the IDPs along with Nawaz Sharif and General Raheel Sharif on the plea that he was busy with the Bahawalpur rally the same day was unfortunate to say the least. This was a rare occasion to symbolically demonstrate to the IDPs that the whole political spectrum was united not only to alleviate their sufferings but also against the terrorists.

Rana Mashood, the new Punjab law minister replacing the sacked Rana Sanullah, was not far wrong when he advised IK to launch a fund raising campaign on the pattern of fundraising for Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital, the cancer hospital named after his late mother.