Spotlight: Swat agreement in the melting pot!: PML-N cocks its ears to sounds of new elections!

Almost the entire nation is focused today on the Swat agreement signed between the ANP government in NWFP and Maulana Sufi Mohammad which was also supposed to be binding on the Taliban. After a very promising start things have not gone according to the script. The PPP government appeared satisfied that it had brought peace.
All parties in the Parliament (except MQM which staged a walk out) unanimously passed a resolution approving the agreement. The President then signed it in the teeth of opposition by America which was opposed to the agreement. America has been historically against all talk of dialogue with the Taliban and may have sabotaged earlier agreements (the one with Nek Mohammad for instance) by covert action on the ground or direct strikes from the air.
Maulana Sufi Mohammad has not helped by issuing statements, fatwa style, against democracy, against the judiciary, against the constitution, against the order of the day particularly so in a speech he made before the mammoth crowd which had gathered to listen to him on Sunday.
It was not possible to present the agreement for formal approval (not technically required) before the Senate because of opposition from several parties, who, it seems, wished to avoid having to vote one way or another.
In the absence of any dialogue on this latest broadside from the Maulana, between him and other Ulema and the people from the judiciary, at least some of the misunderstandings arising from terminology not familiar in the same way to both sides, which could be removed through discussion, could not be cleared.
It is fervently hoped this happens during the next few days and the Swat agreement is not allowed to be aborted since that could lead to major upheaval which will leave no one happy except the Americans hell bent on involving our Army in a bloodbath with the tribals.
SOUNDS OF NEW ELECTIONS! So finally, despite all the sweet words, the expected happened. PML-N decided to go its separate way at the center, which should lead to PPP also finally ending its unfruitful (for PPP) half-hearted association with PML-N in Punjab. That makes for a neat ruling and opposition duo. And that leaves PML-Q on a limbo.
Lacking any vision or popular leadership and long bereft of powerful patronage, the turncoat party currently makes its presence felt only by virtue of its numbers in the parliament which numbers are also in question now. The next general election should finally see the party's unmourned demise.
But this applies in toto to about half of the party. The Maneka faction has found shelter in typical Lota fashion, with PML-N and now drools in anticipation of the committed or expected rewards of "turncoating" a second time. PML-N's decision not to team up with PPP are perhaps based on their perception that the present set-up will not last the full term and therefore they had better keep their distance from it.
Their previous experience with entering into agreements with PPP being what it was, they cannot be blamed for taking a dim view of more of the same. There is no doubt that both PPP and its coalition government are in deep trouble despite the very good start the elections gave them. The reasons for this are many and include acts of both omission and commission.
Reneging on serious written promises and commitments, a series of wrong decisions which had to be recanted under duress (sacking of Shahbaz Sharif, governor's rule in Punjab being the more recent), appointment of cronies and otherwise unsuitable people to positions of high responsibility (who have "proved" their incompetence time and again), off the cuff statements on matters of import without an understanding of implications (equating Kashmir freedom fighters with terrorists, calling Indian air force intrusion a "technical" over flight, eschewing first use of atomic arsenal, to recall some from many) taking consistently antagonistic postures against popular causes (most glaringly the judges' issue) have all led to serious erosion of both authority and credibility of the government.
While every other statement President Zardari comes up has to do with asking for more money to fight terrorism, he has never bothered to come up with a long term vision or plan to make the country stand on its own feet. There is no visible belt tightening on the part of the government. Astronomical sums are spent on protocol and security duties of a veritable army of hundreds of ministers and advisers in Federal and Provincial governments.
Those in authority are flying around in chartered planes with huge entourages as if we are a country rolling in surplus money instead of what we are: a country in which cases of abandoning or selling infants have become a daily occurrence and in which even plain bread has gone out of reach of a large percentage of the population.
The example of austere living set by, for example, the Iranian President has failed to put any one to shame in Pakistan. Diplomats and ministers of even affluent countries do not travel with large numbers of freeloader who are routinely taken round by our leaders for no reason other than making them happy at state's expense, the largesse involving airfare and stay at expensive hotels and, may be, other perks to match.
In this scenario, it is hardly surprising that PML-N would rather go alone. However if PPP government is in considerable disarray, is PML-N enjoying sound health? Hardly! In the first place the party suffers from a Punjab-only image. Maybe it has a latent following in other provinces as well. But Nawaz Sharif has made no effort to reinforce or demonstrate party support in Sindh, NWFP or Balochistan.
The announcement of Nawaz Sharif's sole visit to interior Sindh last month was aborted. No reason was given. Surprisingly the services of Ghous Ali Shah, the former Chief Minister of Sindh, now back from exile, were not used to re-establish PML-N's presence in Sindh interior. As for Karachi, PML-N appears to be too cowed down vis-à-vis MQM's aggressive posturing to attempt a show of strength in the metropolis.
PML-N also suffers from its image as a party of leaders only. Those who watched TV coverage of the second-last arrival of Nawaz Sharif from UAE via England, after receiving Supreme Court's clearance, will recall that the streets of Islamabad were by no means filled by supportive crowds which were there only in very poor numbers and Musharraf had no difficulty in "deporting" him back to where he came from without much commotion.
This is hardly surprising since ML(N) made no effort at any time (including during the spells of Nawaz Sharif's premiership) to build a strong party apparatus or to prepare the party's cadres in a well knit, ideologically homogenous political group. Nawaz Sharif's impressive showing on 16 March 2009 on the streets of Punjab was helped considerably by the fact that restoration of the judiciary was a most popular cause.
The bulk of the lawyers along with political parties, notably Jamaat-i-Islami and Tehrik-e-Insaf, among others, provided the skeleton and sinews of the movement. Solid support was provided to the march with Jamaat-i-Islami taking more than its share of rough handling by the Punjab police for which Governor Salmaan Taseer visited Jamaat's head office to express regrets.
Another problem PML-N suffers from is the fact that two brothers occupy the first and second slots in the party hierarchy. If that was not enough sons and son-in-law appear to be poised to leap frog into yet other high positions in the party. In any future showdown in the form of general elections it would be dangerous for peace and stability of the country if political parties are divided along provincial lines.
It is important, therefore for at least the major political parties to ensure that they have reasonable representation in all provinces. This needs vision, courage and serious efforts to build parties on a firm basis.
THE (INVISIBLE) WIND FARM: SHAME ON OUR TV CHANNELS The other day we were treated on all TV screens to the sight, not of the Wind Farm (whose inauguration with much fanfare was the occasion) but to scenes of our Prime Minister, wearing a cute little Sindhi cap doing the opening of the first ever Wind Farm in the country located in Thatta.
Looking happy with "front seat" in front of the camera were the Governor and Chief Minister of Sindh, as well as Raja Pervez Ashraf (who informs us on a daily basis as to how many megawatts are we short on each day). In the background could be made out with some difficulty a part view of the Wind Farm in a backdrop photograph or projection.
It is sad that none of the three dozens or so TV channels, bothered to show us the actual Wind Farm or to give us a glimpse of its salient features or to look up the status of distribution of the power to the houses in that backward area or to interview and record the impressions of those whose residences were the lucky recipients of the first ever wind power in the country from the 50-megawatt farm.
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