Saeed Minhas
Islamabad– The magnanimity of thought and action expressed by the acting president of Nawaz League, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi in the National Assembly was something which President Gen. Musharraf, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and other political leaders might need to take this country out of present political, social and constitutional quagmire.
But as Jim Hoagland in his recent column published in Washington Post regarded Gen. Musharraf as a skilful tap dancer (Musharraf’s love for music and dance is already known through his own memoirs), I would object to that adding that he is not the only one, we have many of them in our politics, establishment, media and judiciary available in all sizes, gender and formats.
As many were expecting a very harsh and hostile speech from Javed Hashmi, who was making his first appearance in the parliament after almost four years of imprisonment on high-treason charges, Hashmi proved that jail has developed him as a political leader not as a tap dancer. He very skillfully aimed at the army, the president, MMA and even his own leader Nawaz Sharif just to make one point that a new approach is required to take Pakistan out of present quandary. If jail can transform someone to this extent than why this change was not visible in Asif Zardari, Nawaz and Shahbaz, Pervaiz Elahi and Shujaat Hussain and scores of others is a soul-searching query.
We have seen in the past that jail transforms but for personal benefits and either people choose to head for foreign pastures or land in establishment’s lap like Mushahid Hussain, Makhdoom Faisal, Aftab Sherpao to name but the few. Pakistani politics is a mix of strange realities as it sprawls between a vast rural populace and a minor but vocal urban population.
Like the war on terrorism which is based on theory of fear, Rural politics revolves around the same, a symbolic state oppression which is usually called as Thana (Police-station) culture and where people rally behind those who could free them from the clutches of state oppressors. While urban population, especially after the advent of electronic journalism has an arena called public domain where they discuss, debate and then fight (even kill) each other for and on issues of national and corporate interests.
That’s the reason we see Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif or for that matter any party leader carrying two caps all the time. The moment they land among rural surroundings, they talk anti establishment as against their posture and position while they are in urban centres. The reason is simple that no body cares about establishing the writ of institutions and its all about individual agendas. It all ends up how one pacifies the electorate to create that required amount of nuisance whose buyer is none other than establishment (military aided and abetted by civilian) which has the ability to translate the same nuisance into power.
The mathematical translation of this nuisance is something even a mathematician might find hard to calculate but our establishment is so good at this that sometimes their mind-boggling distribution of power makes you think that no sane human can do this?
After re-visiting our own shameful history, it’s not hard to find turn-coats laden assemblies, cabinets and political parties. If Chaudhary Ameer Hussain can be allowed by Nawaz Sharif to become a turn coat to avoid criminal cases, so was done by Benazir. In the same vein when we criticize Maulana Fazalur Rehman for siding with the government or for taking triple-ride (Perks, Baluchistan and NWFP) in one ticket or for having multiple faces (opposition as well as ally on LFO), the rationale is not hard to find.
When individual agendas are considered supreme than the national agendas and when everyone spends state or plundered money to hire consultants, be it in New York, London or Pakistan to ensure all and sundry that national interest stand secured if I am getting something out of it.
The way our political leadership is running their parties is also unique to Pakistan. Benazir is undisputed life-time chairperson, Nawaz Sharif holds the same card and then the rest follows. In this scenario, Javed Hashmi’s approach for a new Pakistan seems an uphill task but as they say that someone has to breakaway from traditions and will that be Hashmi, Aitezaz Ahsan (lawyer for Chief Justice and PPP leader), Maulana Fazalur Rehman or Raza Rabbani we will have to see in the coming days.
Testing times are approaching us, as President Gen. Musharraf has already launched his re-election campaign from his home town of Karachi and a fragmented Q-League has announced to support him in uniform, the mettle of political parties, civil society and the re-born judiciary will be put to a real test. Will judicial activism prove a bubble or will it bust the anti-democratic ambitions of the establishment? Will religious alliance of MMA show some character or will it go for the time-tested doghouse? Will Benazir and Nawaz Sharif do justice to their standings or will they again let the people decay in dungeons of establishment? If tap dancing continued, then everyone is talking about the ultimate chaos.