The last act

To save their illicit personal empires, quite literally their lives, the Sharifs begging for a bail-out by the military that they so methodically, so venomously demonised

“And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, millions of mischiefs.”

–William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Nawaz Sharif and his close coterie of cronies and foot-soldiers have done what none of his predecessors could do: formally asking an army chief to be the mediator and guarantor to sort out a political controversy. This happened after the PTI and PAT activists refused to budge in their demand asking for the ouster of the prime minister paving the way for a transparent vote audit, reconstitution of the election commission, incorporating reforms in the electoral system, holding fresh elections and facilitating the induction of a genuinely-elected democratic government. The protestors also called for a thorough probe of the allegedly rigged elections and punishing those found responsible for the fraud. PAT demanded the registration of an FIR nominating twenty-one persons including the prime minister, the provincial chief minister, a host of federal ministers and police functionaries in the gruesome brutality committed on June 17 in Lahore resulting in the killing of fourteen people and grievously injuring another ninety.

For over two weeks, the protestors remained ensconced in the capital including over a week in the Red Zone, but the political leadership of the country was unsuccessful in sorting out the mess that emanated primarily from allegations of mass-scale rigging in the last elections through an illicit collusion between the PML-N, election commission, judiciary and some key functionaries of the interim administration.

The fact is that Nawaz Sharif has been trapped in doing his act a bit too often. He is trying to play the trick again – by going back on his reported request to the army chief to mediate in the matter of the ongoing conflict saying that he had merely approved the army chief’s meetings with the PTI and PAT leaders. This is borne out by the fact that, for well over fifteen hours after the news was initially leaked by the media, there was not even a murmur of protest from the government quarters. As a matter of fact, everyone including the activist ministers looked crestfallen like the whole world had come crashing down on their heads. Faced with the unprecedented intensity and magnitude of the criticism that his decision elicited, he found it right to hide behind a muffled stance that he had not asked the army chief to mediate in the matter, but had merely agreed to let him talk to the protesting parties

First and foremost, the request to the army chief by the prime minister is an admission of abject failure of the political forces to sort things out among themselves. Nawaz Sharif had the best of everything that he purportedly holds dearest to him. He had the unambiguous support of all the political parties represented in the parliament sans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf who, time and again, were pleading for the supremacy of the parliament and that, under no circumstances, they would allow for it to be trampled over by undemocratic forces (read Pakistan Army). He had the PPP on his side, too. In fact, Zardari, the one whom the younger Sharif wanted lynched and hung upside-down in public just before the last elections, specially came to enjoy a thirty-six dish spread at Raiwind and reiterate his unequivocal support to democracy (read the Sharifs).

The lesser political players were also by the side of the prime minister. He also had the ungrudging support of bulk of the media and some leading luminaries hailing from the judiciary and civil society. So, apparently, he had a plate-full of support to keep him healthy and going. So, what really happened that he had to go down on his knees and ask for help from the army chief? Even more important is whether he consulted the other political stakeholders in the game before submitting his request to the military?

Apparently not! Khursheed Shah, the leader of the opposition in the national assembly wondered aloud that “he would ask the prime minister why the army chief had to be invited to mediate when nearly all political parties were present in the house and had offered their services to him”. Former Punjab governor Latif Khosa put the entire blame on the PML-N: “After killing fourteen innocent PAT workers, the Sharifs were unwilling even to register their FIR”. He also blamed the government’s delaying tactics as having further complicated the matter. The PTI rebel Javed Hashmi was even more unequivocal in condemning the decision: “After this, we would not be able to hold our heads high. It is a shameful time for all politicians who could not resolve the crisis on their own”. JUI-F spokesperson termed it a “failure of the politicians who could not resolve the crisis”. Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Sirajul Haq was more circumspect in his comment, but he also reiterated that “the military had no role in politics”.

The Sharifs have been embroiled in corruption from the day they entered the political arena, be it in the Punjab provincial politics, or later in the national politics. While corruption has been a nagging ailment that the society has been afflicted with from its inception, the Sharifs turned this into a consummate art: they literally bought everything along their way to the prime minister’s office, be it people or institutions. The one commodity they had mastered to use to achieve their nefarious designs was money which they spent malevolently at a huge cost to the state exchequer. They never returned their loans to the banks. There are innumerable default-cases still pending against them since decades which they have successfully, and in criminal collusion with the judiciary, managed to be kept pending. One such case has been languishing for over two decades for which they have secured a stay from the high court. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been sitting on a host of such cases, thanks to the appointment of criminally complicit chairmen to head the institution whose job it is to defend the defaulters rather than prosecute them

How is the prime minister likely to deal with this plethora of condemnations of his decision to involve the army in resolving the ongoing conflict with other political stakeholders? In addition to damaging his immediate position as the chief executive of the country at this critical juncture, it is also likely to permanently dent his political stature and his sustainability in the increasingly challenging environment that is likely to emerge after various election-related issues have been looked into and, understandably, a more transparent system has been formulated with an equally efficient and non-partisan electoral mechanism and the cleaning out of the mess from the election commission. Quite literally, this one single decision could ring the death-knell for the political career of the prime minister and all his family members.

The fact is that Nawaz Sharif has been trapped in doing his act a bit too often. He is trying to play the trick again – by going back on his reported request to the army chief to mediate in the matter of the ongoing conflict saying that he had merely approved the army chief’s meetings with the PTI and PAT leaders. This is borne out by the fact that, for well over fifteen hours after the news was initially leaked by the media, there was not even a murmur of protest from the government quarters. As a matter of fact, everyone including the activist ministers looked crestfallen like the whole world had come crashing down on their heads. Faced with the unprecedented intensity and magnitude of the criticism that his decision elicited, he found it right to hide behind a muffled stance that he had not asked the army chief to mediate in the matter, but had merely agreed to let him talk to the protesting parties.

Where do we stand? At the crossroads again? On the one hand, we have the prime minister almost apologetically explaining his position in the matter of inviting the army’s involvement and, on the other hand, we have the leader of the opposition thundering in the parliament that the military could come and burn the parliament, burn the capital, but he would not let them burn even a single page of the constitution. There is one drama that is being enacted outside the parliament, on the streets of Islamabad, but a drama of another kind is raging inside the parliament where political leaders of all hues and shades, having been effectively shorn of legitimacy and relevance, are crying hoarse over an act of the army that their own prime minister managed to unleash. This is demeaning, not worthy of people who would like to be recognised as national leaders. That they are not! They have been part of a systematic degenerative process involving the ruling elite of the country whose interests are inextricably intertwined and where the survival of one is linked with the survival of the whole ruling mafia

 

The problem rests elsewhere. At the very beginning of his current stint in power, the prime minister thought that, with his majority and the general support extended by other political parties, he could proceed with changing the fundamentals in the country. If this had been a sincere effort, there could be a distinct chance of its ultimate success. But, it was jaundiced on two counts: first, it was a patently insincere engagement not to advance the cause of democracy and constitutionality, but to further perpetuate a family fiefdom and, second, it was launched too early in his current stint in power without strengthening his hold by ensuring delivery to the people at the grassroots level. Power-politics is best left to times when the sitting government has the unequivocal support of the people and when they are not languishing in abominable conditions which are only becoming increasingly unbearable with the passage of each day.

There is another factor which, if not more, is equally important in the overall context of how things have progressed to this sorry state. It relates to the moral strength that the government and the individuals associated with it may carry. The Sharifs have been embroiled in corruption from the day they entered the political arena, be it in the Punjab provincial politics, or later in the national politics. While corruption has been a nagging ailment that the society has been afflicted with from its inception, the Sharifs turned this into a consummate art: they literally bought everything along their way to the prime minister’s office, be it people or institutions. The one commodity they had mastered to use to achieve their nefarious designs was money which they spent malevolently at a huge cost to the state exchequer. They never returned their loans to the banks. There are innumerable default-cases still pending against them since decades which they have successfully, and in criminal collusion with the judiciary, managed to be kept pending. One such case has been languishing for over two decades for which they have secured a stay from the high court. National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has been sitting on a host of such cases, thanks to the appointment of criminally complicit chairmen to head the institution whose job it is to defend the defaulters rather than prosecute them.

There is no hope in hell that justice can be secured in the existent environment, with the existent system. The question is whether the parties that are in the forefront of fighting for change in the country have the people with capability and capacity to do the bit and whether they are equipped with the virtues of sincerity and dedication that constitute the absolute pre-requisites for ensuring the transition from a corrupt and decrepit system to a transparent and healthy disposition? Who are these people who surround Imran Khan? What is their background and what have been their past activities? Which democrats or dictators have they served? What political outfits have they been part of and what do they seek now by associating with a party that is ostensibly carrying forth a reform agenda? For many it may be difficult to doubt Imran Khan’s sincerity to the avowed cause, but haven’t these associates already succeeded in negating, or at least severely denting that dominant perception and haven’t they contributed to make people doubt the prospect of achieving the stated goals – the KPK government experiment being a touchstone of sorts?

This is the crisis that the country is gripped with. This is the crisis that is unfurling bit by bit. This has to untangle. This has to change. It has plagued the foundations on which the state stands. Its continuation may bring down the entire edifice. It cannot come about by merely replacing one corrupt mafia with another – and one has a battalion of the aspirants lined up clamouring for their chance, only to make their own brand of sick contribution and leave a ravaged carcass behind

Where do we stand? At the crossroads again? On the one hand, we have the prime minister almost apologetically explaining his position in the matter of inviting the army’s involvement and, on the other hand, we have the leader of the opposition thundering in the parliament that the military could come and burn the parliament, burn the capital, but he would not let them burn even a single page of the constitution. There is one drama that is being enacted outside the parliament, on the streets of Islamabad, but a drama of another kind is raging inside the parliament where political leaders of all hues and shades, having been effectively shorn of legitimacy and relevance, are crying hoarse over an act of the army that their own prime minister managed to unleash. This is demeaning, not worthy of people who would like to be recognised as national leaders. That they are not! They have been part of a systematic degenerative process involving the ruling elite of the country whose interests are inextricably intertwined and where the survival of one is linked with the survival of the whole ruling mafia.

This is the crisis that the country is gripped with. This is the crisis that is unfurling bit by bit. This has to untangle. This has to change. It has plagued the foundations on which the state stands. Its continuation may bring down the entire edifice. It cannot come about by merely replacing one corrupt mafia with another – and one has a battalion of the aspirants lined up clamouring for their chance, only to make their own brand of sick contribution and leave a ravaged carcass behind.

Remember, the fault is not in the stars. The fault lies within us. The tragedy is that we don’t like looking inwards. We don’t like looking at our own faults which multiply by the day. The last act does not appear far any longer. Given the twenty-four hour advance deadline that I have to meet in sending my piece, this last act may already be over by the time it appears in print on Sunday morning.