Beyond Sindh and PPP

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There may lie something else

 

The nation is not yet over with the joyous feelings September the 6th has brought. The mood is still jubilant; after celebrating the war. The sight of dead/stale meat on TV screens is repulsive to the extent it makes you vomit. Operation Zarb-e-Azb is continuing with indescribable success stories that prompt interior minister to declare that every terror network has been banished from this country. People will now live happily here. Ever after. The gruesome details of Shuja Khanzada’s dead body and the inside images of Muhammadi Nihari House, and every other hotel in the country, for that matter, however, tempt you to run for good. Damn the media!

Balochistan is coming under control. Brahamdagh Bugti has expressed his willingness to talk it out with the government. Just one former DIG of police has been killed in Quetta after that. Karachi Operation has broken the backbone of miscreants and has now entered into the next phase of netting the big fish. Though people are still being targeted, the number is much less. And numbers matter. Those who are casting aspersions on the operation’s different aspects seem to be either crafty nincompoops or ‘jet black’ traitors.

In such a hunky-dory Karachi situation, the refusal of Rashid Godil to leave the hospital seems to be nothing more than a classic case of once bitten, twice shy. Besides, you know, these MQM-wallas have lately started doing things which are outrightly aimed at tarnishing the image of the ‘law enforcement agencies’. They, like spoiled brats, will not cease performing their dramatics – even in their near-deathbed situations. Naughty boys.

But then why is PPP screaming? Well, wise men don’t need any lengthy explanations about the obvious things in life. Because, for wise men a slight indication is enough – that’s how you will exactly translate that famous Urdu idiom. Hai na? The good news is that the number of wise people is increasing in the country by leaps and bounds under the leadership of you know whom. They will emerge in majority – or the single largest group to form a government – in the next elections. You bet.

So, Imran Khan the wise and his party had understood the ulterior motives of the nasty politicians long ago; during the 126-day long ‘save-the-country-not-politics’ sit-in, to be precise. He had said, touch a corrupt (politician), and democracy goes into its default condition of being in danger. Hadn’t he? How else can anyone in his right mind explain the PPP’s hue and cry over Dr Asim Hussain’s arrest and his lawful 90-day remand into Rangers’ custody?

Yes, Imran Khan is more than right on some, nay many, counts. Politicians have made it a habit to term anything a conspiracy against democracy which calls into question their misdeeds or points to the dictatorial choices they make in their heyday. Some are of the opinion that this is because the current ‘political leadership’ is not indigenous, not natural, not organic. This is not the stuff made up of natural ingredients or has grown as a result of natural process. Barring few, almost all of these leaders, they say, are hybrids who have been selectively bred through artificial means in the political nurseries of three bygone military dictators; or during their rules in ( and as a result of) which they not only encapsulated those dictators’ political philosophies but also learned the dirty tricks of survival in that dirty patronage pool. Sycophancy, corruption and toeing the boss’s line are just some of them.

Everyone is naked in this savanna now (right expression?). Asif Zardari, Nawaz Sharif, Asfandyar Wali, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Altaf Hussain, Aslam Raisani, Haider Hoti, etc. Just name a name (except Azam Swati) and you will feel a bad taste in your mouth.

But, that’s beside the point at the moment. So, let’s go back to Imran Khan the politician and seek some enlightenment out of the political awakening that he claims he has caused during his long dharna. According to him, politics in Pakistan is nothing but a muk-muka among evils, aka, politicians. People sometime say he is not a political animal. But they are mostly the ones who are his rivals and who feel threatened by him. His are words whose meanings are understood at some future date. He is a man who is ahead of his time. Take for example this muk-muka thing.

The cat fully and finally came out of the bag when ANP and JUI-F came to the open and tacit rescue (respectively) of PPP. Imran Khan, Shahid Latif, et al had foretold us long ago but we wouldn’t believe. Now, can there possibly be any other reason (like some kind of threat to the system or fear of a direct military takeover, etc) behind their ganging up in favour of a corrupt or two political parties and its leadership other than saving each other from the wrath of… hmm… ‘law enforcement agencies’? Yes, Law Enforcement Agencies.

Imran Khan explained the current situation in Daharki on Friday that Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari had made a clandestine deal not to touch each other during their respective rules. Make and let make money, they told each other. Zardari fulfilled his part of the deal by not opening cases against Nawaz during his party’s tenure in office. But Nawaz, like always, ditched Zardari and started a cleansing operation against PPP leadership in Sindh. That’s why Zardari has lashed out against PML-N and Nawaz Sharif. And that’s what the fuss is all about. Really, these are not somebody else’s words but Imran Khan’s that this Karachi thing is driven by Nawaz Sharif-led civilian federal government. And this shows his unmatched political vision and leadership qualities. After all this is the duty of any leader worth his salt to make complicated issues easy for the people. Making things simple to the simplistic level is an added qualification for everyone in today’s Pakistan, particularly its political leadership.

Asif Zardai did so when he believed that to let his party members make easy money – and lots and lots of it – will ensure electoral victories in their respective constituencies, thereby strengthening the party and him as a consequence. Even Nawaz is happy in making himself believe that everything will be all right if he unreservedly and unquestioningly toed the army’s line in Sindh and lent it a helping hand in its operation clean-up. Then again wasn’t it PPP which just a while ago helped – or kept silent about – the ‘law enforcement agencies’ drive against MQM in the hope that they won’t turn their guns on it? You know simplistic approach sometimes help pass some time peacefully, if not doing something else. It prevents persisting problems causing sleepless nights when nothing can really be done about them. It also makes one optimistic in the face of a potentially grim future situation.

But even though PTI has adopted superficiality as their political manifesto, the choices for other political parties have never been that easy. One factor is the past baggage that other political parties carry with them. PTI has none so far; it’s not been tried before. The other is that things are not so black and white for the rest of them. For example, the PPP knew very well that what goes around comes around. And it tried to resist operation against MQM in the beginning but it was threatened indirectly through media that doing so will result in its being identified as an equal partner of MQM in Karachi crime which will make it easier for the ‘law enforcement agencies’ to hunt it down. So, it backed out after a while. When it finally saw the axe falling down, Zardari roared back. But it was too late by then; the roar proved to be a scream of a paper tiger which ran from the field by just hearing its echo.

So, let’s sum up the situation. According to Imran Khan the current uproar in the country is something caused by the actions of Nawaz Sharif & Co in violation of the terms of its muk-muka with Asif Ali Azrdari & Co. But, side by side, he somehow thinks that whoever is behind, the drive is against the corrupt (status quo) political class which must reach its ‘logical’ – if not strictly ‘legal’ — conclusion. And people at large support him and the ‘law enforcement agencies’. Old political parties and leaders are faced with a daunting situation. Most of them are incompetent, inefficient and corrupt. TV is after them and is busy making these allegations and perception all-encompassing and more widespread, 24/7. Politicians should have started their self-correction much earlier. They are late now. Most of them have stolen money. And they still love it; not just the money itself but stealing it, too. And this has made them weak. An outsider, inside their ranks now, has demonised them to the extent no one in the past had ever succeeded. This has made them weaker. A force, with the required physical power, is moving forward and bulldozing everything that is coming its way. And it has public behind it, enjoying the goodwill like never before. This has made these status quo politicians weakest.

But let’s see how the federal and Punjab governments move against the corrupt elements in other parties and provinces, particularly PML-N and Punjab. And let’s wait whether this process starts at all and whether the civilian side is allowed to lead it. Developments on these counts will contain significant indications to gauge with more certainty if there are chances for the system to derail, and whether if someone out there has some grand design to take political mileage out of the current cleansing drive?

Let’s wait.