Worrisome
It is easy to criticise Asif Ali Zardari for his recent speech. There is, however, also a need to realise the implications of the happenings that led to the outburst.
Asif Ali Zardari committed the worst blunder of his political career on Tuesday. By issuing a threat to shut the entire country in case the PPP was cornered Zardari opted for an unrealistic course that he was least qualified to tread.
Soon after assuming power in 2008 Zardari had rejected the people’s role in bringing the PPP to power. He instead gave all credit to party leadership’s talks with Musharraf. Henceforth, politics was to be conducted through conciliation and parleys among political leaders in drawing rooms and on dining tables. Mass contact was considered unnecessary. Mass mobilisation was an anathema and revolutions a calamity.
After 2008 the PPP followed a policy of conciliation with all who could help it to remain in power irrespective of their programmes and the means they adopted to pursue them. The PPP shared power with MQM, PML-Q and JUI-F, which had till recently been either Musharraf allies at the centre or beneficiaries of his policies in NWFP. In Balochistan the PPP agreed to rule in alliance with the law enforcement agencies as a junior partner. The policy ensured the completion of a full term but led to PPP’s ignominious defeat in the 2013 elections. Most recently Zardari sided with the Ranges as they targeted the MQM.
The speech, therefore, came to many as a surprise. Zardari had suddenly taken recourse to a kind of rhetoric which in his case was altogether out of character. “Stop victimising us or we will tear you down brick by brick,” he roared. He also threatened to expose the corruption of former generals. “We know how to wage war. And only we know how to do it. Don’t get us started or we will lay the tainted faces of many (retired) revered military big guns bare,” he boomed. Zardari warned that he, and no one else, could shut the entire country from KP and Fata to Karachi.
Zardari had suddenly taken recourse to a kind of rhetoric which in his case was altogether out of character
It did not take the PPP leadership long to realise that they had put more on their plate than they could chew. The team that Zardari had collected around him had been beaten badly in the elections two years back. The by-elections showed no improvement in the party’s fortunes. This indicated the state of disconnect with the masses. The PPP Jiyalas had been hounded out of the party years ago. People like Yousaf Raza Gillani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Manzoor Wattoo, Latif Khosa and Rehman Malik might have been able to do many things for the co-chairman, but were never known for a capacity to rouse the masses or lead protest marches. Gillani and Pervaiz Ashraf resigned forthwith from pretty positions forgetting that the party leadership was under pressure and needed their support.
While PPP legislators faithfully supported Zardari’s stand in the Senate and the National Assembly they discovered that no other party was willing to stand by them.
Nawaz Sharif cancelled a meeting with Zardari scheduled for the next day. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi made it known that they stood by the army. Imran Khan was highly critical of Zardari’s speech. The ANP and the JUI-F, which were PPP’s partners during the KP local government election, declined to take Zardari’s side. Some of the PML-N leading lights used the occasion to ridicule Zardari.
The reaction from political parties strengthened the Rangers. A day after Zardari threw down the gauntlet, the establishment hit back. An official arrested by the Rangers on charges of corruption told an anti-terrorism court in Karachi that he handed over 70 percent of the proceeds to Bilawal House. Instead of talking in general terms, the Rangers were now naming names
The Rangers are now looking for DG SBCA Manzur Qadir, who is close to the PPP leadership. The dramatic raid on the SBCA complex was meant to find out his whereabouts besides gathering evidence against him. More is yet to come. Lyari gang leader Uzair Baloch is reportedly in the custody of ‘a prime security agency’ in Peshawar and has made sensational revelations. His video confessions have avowedly been sent to the prime minister, interior minister and DG Rangers Sindh.
The army wants Rangers to continue the operation in Karachi. Corps commander Karachi, who visited the Rangers HQs on Thursday, gave a go ahead
Three reasons have been given for Zardari’s sudden and uncharacteristic outburst.
It is claimed that the Sindh government is under threat and Governor Rule is on the cards. A number of top PPP leaders have rejected this. Besides after the 18th amendment the centre no more possesses the powers to take recourse to the measure at will.
Another reason given is that the sound and fury was meant to remove the perception that the party had lost its vigour as a result of its policy of conciliation. Zardari’s defiant tone it is maintained was meant to infuse a new spirit in the party.
If the idea was to change over to a defiant mode, this is not what one sees happening after the speech. One PPP spokesperson after another is trying to prove that Zardari never criticised the present COAS or the army as an institution and that in fact he praised the institution in his speech. Instead of owning the remarks about the army, PPP spokespersons are being apologetic about them.
Perhaps what provoked Zardari was a number of actions on the part of the Rangers that went beyond the mandate given to them. These included raids on government offices and arrest of certain officials for supposedly being involved in corruption.
The reaction from political parties strengthened the Rangers. A day after Zardari threw down the gauntlet, the establishment hit back
The Rangers were called to help in curbing crimes particularly the terrorist attacks in the city. It is not the business of the Rangers to probe cases of corruption or check land records. By undertaking the activities the Rangers made themselves controversial. There is a need on the part of every institution to remain within its defined sphere and avoid occupying other institution’s turf. This is all the more necessary at a time when the army is fighting against the terrorists in the tribal areas and has expressed keenness to go after them in cities also. The elimination of the terrorists requires national unity. Opening a front against a mainstream political party would be counter-productive.
The problem is that that the PPP’s abject performance in Sindh has created a vacuum which is being filled by other forces. The Sindh government has been thoroughly unresponsive to the plight of the common people. To take one out of scores of instances, the handling of the Thar famine was cynical. Human misery was used by the ministers and officials concerned to mint money. Corruption and apathetic irresponsiveness to people’s plight are a major issue in all the provinces of Pakistan while they are endemic in PPP ruled Sindh. Zardari has done nothing to set the house in order.
The Rangers have used the vacuum created by the ineptitude of the Shah government as an excuse to make an entry.
What is worrisome is the proclivity among some of those in uniform in Sindh for media coverage. Being government servants the way they issue statements and press releases is highly questionable.
Among other things this creates the perception of extra-constitutional meddling in Sindh being a thin end of the wedge. While his political opponents criticise Zardari for the type of speech he delivered, the Rangers’ penchant for transcending the constitutional limits should make them worry about the future of the system.
The army has to realise that it cannot afford to become controversial at a time when it is fighting against the terrorists and faces a chauvinistic Indian administration. There is a need for it to act strictly in accordance with the law and the constitution an avoid controversial moves.