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Dar-Waqar Political Stock Exchange of the Senate inaugurated 

Saeed minhas

Islamabad: At a time when the real masters are nursing their own battered egos, all the President’s men are busy with the ongoing tug of war in Senate and partially with the Karachi situation while new mixture of political coalition developed by premier Gilani is spending more time these days consolidating their mutual gains in Punjab and even extending it to Kashmir.

As we heard from our friends in high places of power corridors that Dar-Waqar Political Stock Exchange of the Senate of Pakistan seems all set to function to deal in lots of hedged fundos to ultimate capture the seat of opposition leader in the Upper House. Latest news from the floor of the House claims that after an intense trading session Noon League has managed to secure three banks of Jamaat-e-Islami, thus leaving the Maulana Ghafoor Haidri on the mercy of Farooq H Naek’s interpretation of the rules of the game.

As per Chairman Senate out of 35 member opposition, Haidri managed to secure more votes based on the allocation of treasury and the opposition benches. Whereas, Senator Ishaq Dar and his devotees believe that they have 23 members with them therefore the seat should be given to them and not to the topsy-turvy Maulana Fazalur Rehman’s man.

The chairman Senate seems to have taken a strict line based on 18^th amendment and does not believe that Que League could be defined as an opposition party whereas the four permanent dissidents including Said, Haroon Khan, and Chattha along with the four new breakaways like Tariq Azeem, Gulshan Saeed and Jamal Leghari still consider the deal between Chaudhrys of Gujrat and President Zardari as the one based on saving Moonis and Pervaiz Elahi from FIA and not to save the democracy.

In the process one can see that Maulana has not only lost his good old contacts with Nawaz League but has also been dumped by his religious rivals Jamaat-e-Islami which actually means an end to the era of congenial relations between the pro establishment parties. Similarly, on the other hand one can see Que league and PPP agreeing to become bed fellows after hostilities dating back to 1977.

Perhaps keeping that mind it is believed by many observers that there are no permanent enemies or friends in politics, it is highly likely that once the establishment sorts out its own issues with Americans, they might once again bring them back to a table outside GHQ for assembling a pro-Islamist alliance either to restart the factories of selling fear to the west or to check the onslaught for a free society. In that scenario, Peoples Party certainly might not fit in because after all no matter what they have made of this liberal party by installing and assembling all the anti Bhutto and pro Bhutto forces in this party, it still carries the flag of liberalism.

Aside from the predictions (or what we may call as suspicions) of these pundits, the ground reality of today is that Chaudhrys, especially the younger one has started to lead the PPP jiyalas into Kashmir elections to ensure that he manages to stage a good show against Sharifs in the relatively calm vallies of Pakistani Kashmir in the upcoming assembly elections there. No matter however, strange it may seem but since premier Gilani has awarded Pervaiz Elahi his wish to lead the state troopers and Jiyalas in Kashmir to quench his thirst against Nawaz League, therefore, we will soon see Chaudhrys addressing Jiyala rallies in Muzaffarabad and Neelam vallies. The quid-pro-quo in this matter, of course, remains the support of Que Leaguers, no matter how many factions they are divided into now, or for that purpose of Chaudhrys for Gilani and his men in Punjab, especially the southern Punjab against Sharifs. Why Mr. Gilani is banking on the support of Chaudhrys is no wonder a simple guess that since they have ruled Punjab rather been part of the flora and fauna of Punjab since Gen. Jillani days along with Sharifs, therefore, they can prove out to be the best anti-dot for the Sharifs. So one can wonder that how scary civil administration will remain to see such a clash between the two established Jihadis of the past on their pitch, especially when every other officer you talk to in Punjab is considered to be either related to Sharifs or to Chaudhrys. Now don’t ask how but those who know Punjab’s politics understand this open secret and the working style of Chaudhrys as well as of Sharifs.

Meanwhile, heading back to the parliament, we once again saw shrieking Saad Rafiq yelling at the Khakis or may be at the secret agencies. It seems that Khawaja Saad Rafiq cannot just handle the flashbacks of those days spent in custody of police and various intelligence agencies throughout his laborious student unionism and then political marshalling days. That’s the reason that he lets no opportunity go begging past him to bash the security agencies and in the heat of moment even calls obnoxious names to them.

While, journos had staged a good show for a good cause outside the parliament House, therefore, we managed to see many parliamentarians and some of their non elected leaders trying to make a bee line to be seen on the scene by any of hundreds of cameras so that they can also shed some light on slain Saleem Shahzad without knowing that why Mr. Gilani has not been able to form a judicial commission to probe his tragic killing and hundreds of others at the hands of secret agencies. One can only hope that the ever vigilant monitors of the Supreme Court might take notice of this huge gathering of journos on the same Constitution Avenue, where once Chief Justice was pronounced defunct, manhandled and then eventually restored –not once but twice. Since these monitors include some near and dear ones working there, therefore let’s hope that the case of a slain journalist also finds a way into the list of suo motus.