Press Gallery

Rab nay Bana di Jori

Saeed Minhas

Islamabad: Political discourse continue to heat up not only around Karachi and Quetta but also around judiciary and executive with the power corridors rife with the rumours of a change of country’s chief executive in the coming weeks due to differences between the top houses on the parliament hill.

All eyes seems to have stuck to the newly formed duo of President Zardari and Chaudhrys and as these apparently strange bed fellows are giving nightmares to Sharifs in Punjab they are also thinking of developing a broader coalition government to buy some more time and play some more games in Punjab and Sindh. Resorting to typical Punjabi folklores, one of the Jiyala furthered this conversation by singing “Rab nay Bana di Jori” (Divine Duo) and revealed that as one Makhdoom might be asked to exit with bagful of fortunes, another from the same geographical belt might be asked to take over the reins and continue the same governance model what the previous one has been juggling with throughout his three years.

The new Makhdoom being projected these days is the same one who once used to be an integral part of Peoples Party but due to political wrangling (or may we call it expediency) ended up on Musharaff’s C-League’s roll-call. Just to remind myself when I asked that is it the same one who was pitched against Mian Manzoor Wattoo’s in Punjab during the second tenure of Benazir Bhutto as senior minister, the answer from the elderly Jiyala was a stubborn gaze (it’s his style of saying just listen, don’t ask).

Insiders at the hill top are also talking about the first up or as you may call it patch up meeting between president Zardari and Makhdoom where President was so welcoming to Makhdoom that when he walked into the Presidential suite with Chaudhrys he was told in a usual jovial way that he has made a mistake of shifting parties during Musharraf and had he stayed inside jail (instead of making a deal for interior ministry)) he might have been the obvious choice for the PM in post February 2008 scenario.  

Anyway, I am sure you might have got a clue by now and just to make it clear, let me put it this way that it’s the same Makhdoom who is busy these days screwing former Housing minister hailing from the ‘House of Maulanas’ for allegedly making millions in Prime Minister Housing project. As our friends revealed that since an almost broke Makhdoom badly needed finances to save his pride (of Jeevna) therefore he managed to work hard and nab Kakar in this massive land scam. Resultantly, some insider believe that Kakar has come dashing to seek mercy and has agreed to share whatever is left with him after paying the major ransom to his superiors. It is learnt from the ministry babus that former DG Federal Government Employees Housing Foundation (FGEHF) Sher Afzal is now under scrutiny of Makhdoom and his close associates believe that Sher Afzal is likely to budge soon. Though insiders have revealed it to Makhdoom that the current chairman CDA, Imtiaz Inayat Elahi has also benefited from Kakar-Afzal game plan by bagging initially more acres but eventually returning few and keeping only a dozen of kanals to keep his ‘clean’ image intact, still Makhdoom has not decided to take on him due to some Butts (and certainly not ifs). Since these bulky Butts are all over the place when it comes to CDA, therefore, Makhdoom is looking towards the safe bets only and not the risky ones.

But let’s move on from this revealing talk to the real issue of the Big Duo as they are planning to form yet again a government of national unity in which not only MQM will be given their due but even Maulana Fazalur Rehman will also be asked to take back his lost ministries. To give this reconciliatory set up some kind of a ground to stand on efforts are afoot to lure in both these estranged parties and Chaudhry Shujaat is as usual dug deep into this job. After all, it’s the same Chaudhry who used to go and negotiate with the trouble-makers whenever his former boss used to call him for this role (remember Lal-Masjid and Bugti, though both did not yield any results but at least Chaudhry kept the hopes of his uniformed master alive till the very last minute). After all, Chaudhrys’ old association with MQM and their two point agenda of settling scores with Sharifs and keeping Moonis Elahi in safe houses from the heat of Supreme Court is in a way so helpful to the Presidency that it has the time to carry out its plan for change of chief executive as well secure more relevance in Karachi. With the lessening of the workload on Presidency, one can see that instead of facing all the heat like a lone ranger, it is giving much more time to the issues of its homeland (Sindh).

Meanwhile, in a related development and as everyone was feeling the absence of Ch. Nisar from the scene for quite some time now, some Nawaz Leaguers today confirmed to this scribe in the parliament House that there exist a rift between Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhry. And mind you it has nothing to do with the existing rift within the Sharif brothers over the distribution of their riches because it is more about meddling of elder Sharif in the constituency of Chakwal (the home town of Ch. Nisar). Somehow, elder Sharif has managed to upset Chaudhry by having political negotiations with his rivals to assess the future strategy in this region. To control this from growing worse, Khawaja Asif is learned to have started playing his role and is working very hard to bring both the party leaders on the same table for once. Will they be able to sort it out between themselves or will they open up a list of charges (many say wishes) against each other is likely to come to the front in coming weeks, but one thing is for sure that elder Sharif has not even considered the pleas of his younger brother in this regard and is not in a mood to listen to any suggestions from his party leaders as well. So how serious this tug of war is going to become, party leaders are keeping a mum on this and wish not be caught up in this clash of titans. Because they believe that on the one side it’s the party president and on the other hand it’s the parliamentary party leader, so better stay out of this instead of getting embroiled in it. Khawaja Asif, however, being a more daring of the rest of the lot has taken it upon himself and continues to resolve this, agreed a number of party MPs.