What is common between Nawaz Sharif of yore (the Nineties) and Asif Zardari of today? Answer: Both would settle for nothing less than absolute power.
While Asif Zardaris recent moves (leading up to the CJP restoration decision) are ample testimony to his style of governance and are there for all to see, Nawaz Sharifs alleged desperate actions when he was in power, to control the judiciary (in a high court case being then heard by no other than our worthy Malik Abdul Qayyum who has also provided useful services for the present rulers in the recent past), to get decisions to his liking come up now and then in the political blame game in the media.
There is also a matter of an attack on the Supreme Court by his alleged cronies who subsequently admitted to the act, threw themselves at the Courts mercy and were forgiven by an indulgent Court. But Nawaz Sharif has not come clean in the matter and the subject keeps coming up in political give and take whenever he presumes to take moral high ground.
As for President Asif Zardari, his moves towards assuming absolute power, no matter what, are unfolding right before our eyes. Readers of Spotlight may perhaps recall that in the very first article that appeared in April 2008 titled The PPP Power Triangle, Asif Zardari, Rahman Malik and Farooq Naek were identified as the vertices of the triangle.
With the Prime Minister left to twiddle his thumbs, the affairs of the state have been run by President Asif Zardari with the help of the other two. Mr Rahman Malik and Mr Farooq Naek are reported to have been the main behind-the-scene people in the long drawn out negotiations Benazir had with Musharraf, with big brother America overseeing everything including NRO, a subject close to Mr Zardaris heart! Therefore they have Asif Zardaris full confidence. But they also arouse deep suspicion as at best unknown entities in the minds of PPP second tier and its activists.
His National Assembly "flank" secure with the appointment of Dr Fehmida Mirza, wife of crony Mr Zulfiqar Mirza (himself Home Minister in Sindh Province), the President turned his attention to the Senate whose Chairman officiates as President in the latters absence and got Farooq Naek elected Chairman, rather than the obvious choice in the person of highly respected leader of the house in the Senate, Mr Raza Rabbani.
In this, President Zardari appears to have overreached himself. Mr Rabbani was quick to relinquish his positions in silent protest, both as leader of the house in the Senate and as Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Co-ordination. Then followed the resignation of Sherry Rehman, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, who was considered by PPP power-brokers as soft on the opposition in media and who in turn had complaints of being ignored in decision making in her area of responsibility.
After Aitzaz Ahsan, Raza Rabbani and Sherry Rehman, two more PPP stalwarts Senator Safdar Abbasi and Naheed Khan (both considered to have been very close to Benazir) have openly joined the miffed group to make a round five and Zardari will have to fall back for support on an increasingly partisan and controversial alignment in PPP. For now, he has made sure that only the faithful will officiate as President when he goes abroad or is otherwise on leave from Presidential duties.
CJP RESTORED! The government (read President Zardari) had shown no intention of giving in to demands of the Long Marchers. Nearly all PPP spokespersons had decried the deposed CJP in various Talk Shows, as a political person who could not be reinstated, come what may! On his part, Rahman Malik said a challenge was given by the Long March and he was fully determined to meet it.
These were no idle words. Rahman Malik left no stone unturned and barred no holds in his efforts to thwart the Long March. One can only wonder, had he shown half the initiative in protecting Benazir in Rawalpindi or in protecting the visiting cricket team from Sri Lanka, would the two tragic happenings have been averted!
The dramatic announcement by the Prime Minister, in the early hours of Monday that CJP Chaudhry Mohammad Iftikhar was being restored to his former position, therefore caused euphoria among the marchers - numbering hundreds of thousands and increasing by the minute - on the roads leading to Islamabad. Nawaz Sharif announced an end to the Long March which he claimed was done after consulting all participant leaders.
There was much celebration, dancing and passing on of sweets at this apparently sudden turn of events (specially after CJP accepted the decision) after all the tear gassing and scuffles which had left many injured and suffering from lathi charges, stone throwing and tear gas effects. People were preparing for a long drawn out struggle with the prospect of many days on the road ahead and here was their long coveted goal offered to them on a plate!
RESERVATIONS AND ENIGMAS AHEAD Not all got carried away by the PMs announcement, though. Justice (R) Wajihuddin Ahmed was one of the first to question the delay in restoring CJP. His question: why cannot Dogar go on LPR immediately thus vacating the place for the deposed CJP. Barrister Hamid Khan former President Supreme Court Bar Association also had reservations about the unanswered questions and did not look as happy as, for example, Aitzaz Ahsan.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed Amir Jamaate Islami (whose followers stood their ground at the GPO Chowk in Lahore with others on Sunday in a hail of tear gas shells and took the sting out of the police operation) was dissatisfied with developments on two counts: firstly he criticised Nawaz Sharifs action in calling off the Long March without, according to him, any consultation with JI, Tehrike Insaf and other stakeholders following PMs announcement as had been agreed.
Secondly, without restoration of the judiciary to its 2 November 2007 position, CJP Chaudhry would not be able to achieve much in view of a large number of judges appointed during the past few days since they were mainly drawn, according to Qazi Saheb, from the ranks of PPP activists. Many others are also voicing misgivings in the same vein, given Asif Zardaris record on commitments and promises. Any delay looks ominous to many, and with reason!
"CONTAINING" THE LONG MARCH Section 144 was imposed in most cities prohibiting the assembly and movement of more than 4 persons on roads. Wholesale arrests were made even of those not on the roads yet.
Almost the entire country was put in a strait jacket by the simple expedient of expropriating all containers in sight - whether parked awaiting transport or in transit on roads - and placing them across all major arteries of the country (a la 12 May 08, Karachi) with particular attention paid to those connecting the four provinces and coming from any major city. The number of such containers was initially put at 5000 but later, as the operation progressed, the number given by a representative of transport business was 15000 to 20000.
Apart from the illegal and immoral highhandedness of the act, the loss to business and the country in terms of deliveries delayed, commitments to people within and outside the country not kept, damage to goods through clumsy unloading and dumping, it can only be called criminal. At least one death took place as a result of the inability of a seriously ill patient to reach a medical centre due to road blocks.
Thus marchers from Karachi were blocked at the toll gate on the Super Highway, arrested and otherwise prevented from proceeding along the Long March route. Ali Ahmed Kurd, President Supreme Court Bar Association was stopped on the Balochistan-Sindh border and had to spend a night stranded on the way. When he backtracked to Quetta and boarded, with a few others similarly headed, an aircraft bound for Islamabad, valid tickets in hand, the flight was cancelled.
He got on board on a subsequent flight with valid boarding cards but had to get off when it was conveyed that the flight could only start without him and his companions. Roads connecting NWFP and Punjab were likewise blocked. Even small towns and cities were cut off from other parts of the country.
Students were thrown out of hostels of colleges and universities to make way for stationing of policemen in their hundreds. Hundreds of Sindh policemen were put on a train at Karachi to join forces with their counterparts in Lahore and Islamabad. Of all the things, Basant was allegedly put to a very political use. Existing orders were reversed by Governor Taseer to allow people to engage in Basant activities (mainly kite flying) on 14 and 15 March.
This was supposed to have the effect of diverting people from possible participation in the Long March. It was alleged said that habitual criminals whose lists are maintained by the police and who are occasionally used by the police for various purposes, were pressed into activity to swell the numbers of those celebrating. It was also alleged that denizens of the Red Light area were also used to enliven the environment! How innovative can you get!
FAZLUR RAHMAN AND MQM - DISCORDANT NOTES Two bizarre developments were the responses to the Long March by Fazlur Rahman and the MQM which had a commonality. Fazlur Rahmans grandiose efforts at rapprochement between PPP and had failed and not surprisingly, since Fazlur Rahman has long been an opponent of the deposed CJP and has a long record of being always on the side of the rulers. His credentials for playing honest broker were therefore always suspect.
(His APDM partners have not forgotten how he tricked them and made sure on the sly that the NWFP Assembly was not dissolved before the elections that resulted in Musharraf getting elected again). He termed the Long March a Punjab Show and said the rest of the country was not involved and that the March was therefore a bad thing for the country.
His stance did not surprise any one and was largely ignored. MQMs response to Long March puzzled almost every one. Although the partys opposition to deposed CJP has been consistent, people were puzzled by its claim that anti Sindh Province slogans were raised by the Long Marchers.
Building on that bizarre accusation, MQM went on to give an ultimatum to its main coalition partner (PPP) to give a fitting response to the alleged slogans within 48 hours, else his party would consider parting ways with it! Now, millions were watching the Long March on TV on the fateful Sunday and no one appeared to have heard an anti Sindh slogan or chant by the marchers.
Neither any of the score or more of local channels reported hearing any such thing. The mood of the March was entirely different. MQMs claim and its disproportionate response left every one wondering, what was behind it all, just as MQMs rally, some days back, against alleged damage to Benazirs memorial structure at Rawalpindi by PML(N) workers (hotly denied by Nawaz Sharif in categorical terms) was seen as an over reaction not justified by the facts of the case. Perhaps, having been long in power now, MQM does not find many ready causes to espouse.
PART PLAYED BY ARMY, USA/UK Thanks to the media coverage of events connected with the Long March, people got a fair idea of who pulled the wires leading to a change of heart on the part of President Zardari.
A flurry of visits by Army Chief Kayani to the PM and the President, the American Ambassadors meetings with the President, the Prime Minister and Nawaz Sharif, the series of calls made by Mr Holbrooke, American special envoy for this unfortunate region, to every one concerned and finally US Secretary of State Clintons a no-nonsense call to the President in which there was a strong hint of financial American aid resuming only if and when the current crisis was settled (with her as guarantor, some said, of the agreement reached, in view of the state of mutual trust between Zardari and Nawaz Sharif) appeared to have pushed President Zardari to concede what he had been resisting tooth and nail. It was all so explicit and so well accepted by every one that we might as well call our country an American add-on!
NAWAZ SHARIFS NEW LOOK From the moment Nawaz Sharif took charge of the long march, defying orders for his house arrest, he appeared to be a new man! Gone was the hesitant look and manner and no longer was he at a loss for words. For a change he looked like a man who knew what he was doing and where he was headed.
If he were a political leader in America, anchor persons would be discussing his body language and analysing whether one kind of situation is more suited to his personality than another to bring out the strengths in him! Well, let us wait and see which is the real Nawaz Sharif! (owajid@yahoo.com)