Shooting oneself in the foot, repeatedly

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) government of Imran Khan has shown a rare talent for shooting itself in the foot again and again. The whole handling of the Nawaz Sharif health issue is the latest and perhaps most egregious example of this habit. Despite Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan himself making noises about not politicising Nawaz Sharif's health and medical treatment issues, he and his government and party leaders seem unable to escape the trap of misplaced concreteness, lowering the political discourse into the gutter, and making utter fools of themselves.

As though there had not been enough stupidity on display on the issue, Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan and Accountability hatchet man Shahzad Akbar once again tried to 'creatively' portray the Lahore High Court (LHC) verdict on letting Nawaz Sharif proceed abroad without the government's desired indemnity bonds of over Rs seven billion as a 'victory' (although patently hollow) for the government. In a press conference on November 17, 2019, they tried to depreciate the LHC decision as 'interim' (i.e. final judgement yet to come in January 2020 at the earliest, by which time it may not matter), and based on humanitarian grounds that vindicated the government's stance on assurances required to ensure Nawaz Sharif's return, all this while announcing the decision would not be challenged in the Supreme Court. Here too the house divided that PTI is produced out-in-the-relative-cold minister Fawad Chaudhry's wisdom that it should be challenged. This is just another example of the confusion and lack of discipline in the ranks of the PTI.

Had the LHC verdict truly been an expression of the government's thinking and wishes as Mansoor and Shahzad tried to interpret it, why would the federal cabinet have asked its legal team to study the judgement and brief it so it could discuss it knowledgeably regarding the issue of removal of Nawaz Sharif's name from the Exit Control List (ECL)? If truth be told, the LHC has delivered a body blow to the PTI government's credibility and image. Now after all this to and fro palaver, Nawaz Sharif seems poised to fly out to London today (November 19, 2019).

Is that the end of the story? Will Nawaz Sharif fulfil the commitment to the LHC that he would return in four weeks or as soon as the doctors declared him fit? There is no reason to think otherwise, given his track record of having returned in unfavourable political circumstances during the Musharraf regime's dying days and even when his late wife was dying in hospital in London. Let us hope, in the spirit of tolerance extended to political rivals in a democracy and the basic principles of humanitarianism and decency that Nawaz Sharif recovers and returns to face his court and other troubles. He is certainly not expected to fritter away a lifetime's investment in his party's fortunes at this point by running away.

The conspiracy theory lobby, being the guardians of the only growth industry in Pakistan, is going wild with theories of the 'same page' mantra being over. Whether this is premature wishful thinking or not, the 'evidence' is sketchy, speculative, and unconvincing. What are the 'signs' being referred to prove this latest venture into the land of dreams and nightmares?

One, the role played by the remnants of the original King's Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), in the shape of the Chaudhry brothers is cited. They took presumably a message from their masters to Maulana Fazlur Rehman regarding his sit-in in Islamabad. The terms of endearment on offer may not have been enough to persuade the Maulana to desist from his protest campaign completely, but it did succeed halfway in 'convincing' the Maulana to give up the increasingly lonely perch atop the sit-in stage in favour of a dispersed campaign dubbed Plan B. The Chaudhries have also openly advised Imran Khan to let Nawaz Sharif go abroad for treatment. Two, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has also been making similar noises vis-à-vis Nawaz Sharif of late and complaining in the same breath that it has gained little or nothing from its alliance with the PTI.

It needs to be understood that the PML-Q and MQM were inducted into the coalition government, along with the usual collaborators with every government, i.e. the colonial-era created landed class of southern Punjab, as 'insurance' against Imran Khan in power suddenly developing a Nawaz Sharif-style 'independence'. However, the sane advice of the Chaudhries and MQM may just be a message to the government to halt its self-destructive tendencies, not necessarily an abandonment at this stage. With ill-advised advisers, Imran Khan is in trouble across the board, whether it be his by now tired corruption mantra, mishandling of the economy, parliament, and opposition. Those who have dumped all their eggs in Imran Khan's basket seem worried behind the scenes by his stubbornness and incompetence. However, lacking their own Plan B (the other two main opposition parties having their backs to the wall), the powers-that-be that inducted Imran Khan through a flawed and manipulated election in 2018 must be burning the midnight oil to rescue the country and themselves from one of the worst governments in our history.

If a new Plan B cannot be found, all bets are off vis-à-vis the crisis of a vacuum of political leadership yawning in front of us and whose consequences are difficult to foretell at this point in time.

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