Fanciful speculations on Bilawal-Nawaz meeting
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was granted his wish to inquire into the health of the jailed three-time former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif by the Punjab Home Department, and so they met at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail on Monday, with senior party leaders also accompanying Mr Bhutto Zardari. The thoughtful visit was given a big buildup by some fevered imaginations, but as Mr Bhutto Zardari was at pains to point out, there was no political agenda, and his sole motive was humanitarian, as he had learnt that Mian Nawaz was in a bad way, health-wise. Although some political chit-chat was inevitable, the focus centered on the latter issue. Given the past history of betrayals and back-stabbing and vehement verbal duels, with the PPP and PML (N) leaderships heaping calumny and oblivion on each other, it is probably safe to take him at his word on this one. It can even be believed that apart from Mian Nawaz’s health they might also have talked about the weather and antique coins– but nothing politically serious or practically meaningful.
It can also be assumed for argument’s sake that Mr Bhutto Zardari was taking his chairmanship of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights, to which he was elected unanimously on March 5, in its truest sense. He had tweeted then, ‘human rights are the foundation stone of any democracy…we must ensure every Pakistani’s human rights’ and later expansively declared that without human rights, freedom of expression, access to education and healthcare, or the rule of law and justice, cannot be guaranteed. This aspect might explain his genuine concern over Mian Nawaz’s health, and his fervent plea to the government to provide him with the best treatment, according to his wishes. But Mr Bhutto Zardari should also have done his bit to persuade a stubborn or defiant Mian Nawaz to get proper treatment in hospital. Despite creating some ephemeral goodwill between the youthful PPP chairman and the PML (N) political heiress, both eventually perhaps the very vehicles of carrying on the electoral feud to the next generation, any clamour of a new charter of democracy or a multi-party opposition that could topple the PTI government can be brushed aside for the foreseeable future. The people’s and ‘general’ slogan is: God save us from another election campaign so soon after 2018 polls.
