Pakistan, the Prime
Minister and the Political Satan
Dr.
Zafar Altaf
ISLAMABAD:The
story, a true one, goes that Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister
and a delegation from Sindh came to see him. One of the delegates
whose ability at sycophancy knew no limit said: "Prime Minister
you were made for Pakistan and Pakistan was made for you. I say
this because you have six nuktas [astrological points]
in your name and Pakistan also has six nuktas."
That
made Nawaz Sharif realize the truth and the significance of the
correlation. He was completely taken by the sycophant and immediately
tried to reward him. He did, for the speaker was awarded land
in Sindh from the Prime Minister’s rehabilitation scheme
for the landless.
The
tragedy was that he was not landless and in fact the group that
came to see the Prime Minister was from the feudal sector. As
soon as the group came out, the person addressed his colleagues
who were chastising him for what he had done. His reply was that
the Prime Minister did not realize that Shaitan [satan]
also had six nuktas!
The tale is reported for the reason that our chief executives
where ever they may be, are given to such games. Zia was told
how good he was for Pakistan because he brought rains with him
and the farmer would prosper because he was a farmer friendly
person [Zia hailed from a village in Jullunder district]. All
of them are naive enough to accept the sycophancy.
Of
late these matters of servility have taken a turn for the worst.
The Opposition politicians have taken a tough stand on the LFO.
Daily the rounds of the National Assembly are echoing with the
noise of 'Go Musharraf Go', 'No LFO No'.
The
isolated ivory tower President finally lost his cool and just
when he had finished paying homage of a kind to the poet of the
East, Allama Iqbal, he made some derogatory remarks about the
National Assembly. Now the President is known for his cool. I
suspect he never meant it. For in the forces the use of slang
is common. And in that slang sleaze words always crop up. They
also know that when you utter these words the reply can be as
good as you give.
On
the other hand, for the first time a politician and the pivot
of the present government Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain made startling
revelations and comments on the conduct of the army in the use
of strong-arm tactics. A unique profile of the new political godfather
by the recent winner of the reporter-of-the-year award, Rauf Klasra,
(The News, Islamabad) came as a surprise to all.
Some
of the scandalous facts given by Ch. Shujaat Hussain were already
circulating in the political circles and one of the leading Army-Politician
General Naseer ullah Babar [former Interior minister in the PPP
government] did petition the Supreme Court to take action and
to have the documents in their custody. He also submitted a long
list of politicians, some are even sitting in the existing assemblies,
who had got funds from the Mehran Bank on the wish of country's
real bosses.
You
read the names in Rauf Klasra's exclusive story based on Ch. Shujaat
Hussain admission that he was offered massive funds by General
Aslam Beg in 1990 to defeat PPP and would find all big names of
our political class who earlier received money from the generals.
One laments when reads the names of our former President, prime
minister, chief ministers of Sindh, MQM Chief, former and sitting
federal ministers of the country in the list of beneficiaries!
The petition is now coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court,
admittedly late but it is on and what kind of drama will unfold
is any one’s guess. Benazir as Prime Minister used to say
let us get things done before the truthful and uncompromising
uncle Babar came to the cabinet meeting. Uncle-General was that
scrupulous. So what gives and where, is going to matter pretty
soon. Ch. Shujaat was the interior minister in the next cabinet
of Nawaz Sharif and he for the first time has revealed these facts.
Were
the previous army chiefs doing the same thing? Are the recent
stories going around correct? Politicians must come out so that
the nation knows the truth and how their money was being used,
or misused. The forces have been in the confidence of the country
as its savior but all that is going to change.
Kh.
Asif the scion of Kh. Safdar of Sialkot made the confession the
other day of how the Punjabi political leaders have got the forces
to become a self defeating dragon turning on its own kind for
the purpose of satisfying its unwarranted greed.
Those
who suffered at the hands of the accountability efforts were at
a dinner lately and all of them had their tales to tell. It seem
that the only way that one can be in power is to be in the jug
for a period of time. Now if you were talking of apples rotting
when there is one rotten apple in the pack what would happen to
a politician who went to the jug and even if he was the most pious
and non-criminal when he lives with the majority of the criminals.
The
revelations on criminal actions need to be substantiated and all
those who are accessory after the fact be taken and tried for
murder for in the world of justice [See Rawls] those who were
passive or inactive are equally liable and are accessory after
the fact.
How
many people were killed in fake police encounters? Any one’s
guess. One public servant, a member of the dismembered DMG group,
collected the figures for Gujranwala and he came up with the number
78. He was told to behave or else meet the fate that was meted
out to the other rascals. I do not know where he is at the moment
for I have not been able to reach him.
Ch.
Shujaat has been extremely bold and why? What were his motivations
for this? Was he using his newfound influence for the people that
might thwart him? Influence has specificity. Will this force the
other politicians to come forward with their cans of worms. Will
they come in this area or will it touch some new area.
Ch.
Shujaat operates in many domains and is thus less vulnerable than
the others. He has in his district ‘no go’ areas where
no one can go except with his or his family’s permission.
All kind of staffs have safe haven there. Will the greater intensity
of the politicians work to living in truth? Do they understand
truth in its absolute sense and be able to look at themselves
in a manner that implicates them in the unlawful and illegal actions.
The
elites have the most influence and as I write this there is news
coming in of Mukhdoom Amin Fahim meeting one of the ISI generals
in a safe house. What for? The safe house did not turn out to
be a safe house for the news came out and was splashed in the
national newspapers. The LFO was in discussion. Why? Who leaked
the news? Whereas Ch. Shujaat was talking about history, as the
then players are now toothless, the Amin Fahim leak is current
and the gunslingers very much holding their guns.
The
political system has a number of pluralities. It is only now that
they have come to accept that they have been used once and discarded.
They are one-timers and then they are in the fold of the bribers
for good. Is using state money for government perversions allowed
or does it come within the ambit of the corrupt practices? These
are questions that the lawyer class must put to the judiciary.
For
instance is the collection of people at Nowshera [the strong hold
of Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the Jamaat chief] for celebrating the appointment
of Colonel Commandant [an obsolete and sinecure exaltation coming
to us from colonial times] through intoxications of various kinds
permitted under the laws governing this country? Qazi rightly
called a press conference.
Rashid
Qureshi [general of some kind or the other and ISPR chief] tried
to black out the news but it did get into some newspapers. The
exalted positioning and the merry-making never went forward. All
the Humas [Noor Jehan’s daughter] and singers that were
supposed to go there for some kind of listening and non-listening
pleasure had to come back disappointed. In the exchange of phrases
good old Punjabi was used. On the decent level they called each
other Mamas [maternal uncle], one of society the other of the
country.
So
old friends used for the purpose of Jihad and sacrifices may have
finally come to an end. The Zia regime and the others that followed
have been using the Jamaat, the most disciplined religious-political
party to their selfish ends.
What
to do to come back to Ch. Shujaat? Its true that he is in the
thick of it and controls the machinery of the government despite
the fact that he has no political authority in the governance
of the country. Does this lead to diarchy and anarchy. That is
not the case, for the PM has precious little influence and the
informal Shujaat has much more, in terms of rallying forces to
the fore. The influence of Shujaat revolves round the fact that
he has been saved for saving one of his own caste when he was
in trouble from Asif Zardari, the spouse of Benazir.
Chaudhry
has tried to demystify this and that may have been a mistake in
political terms. Ch. Shujaat is certainly an elite in the present
structure. Since the statements are self exculpatory there is
need to cross reference what he has stated. And once that is established
the journalists must and have to set up a truth commission a la
South Africa to get to the truth. Difficult-yes, impossible no.
The
effort must be to play according to the rules that are established
and not to pick and choose as we do for we are a nation that governs
by exceptions.
Sudden
discontinuities need not be blamed on any one but ourselves. These
discontinuities have dismantled and sense of identity that Pakistan
may have had; and all that for the benefit of the few.
A
taxonomical analyses is called for the decisions are in the realm
of spread of distribution of influence for I learnt to my horror
that some of the influenced appointments were even made while
the PM was on way to Kargil to assess the debacle of adventurism.
I
do not want to get into this taxonomical assessment of decisions
just yet, may be next time. But bravo to Qazi sahib for finally
graduating. Remember it was Naqvi’s idea that political
wisdom can only be with those having a sheet of paper saying that
they are graduates, a Mt. Everest level amendment of the Constitution
of Pakistan.
Mock
me–go ahead mock me for what else can the influential do
but to mock anything that is not in their realm. This is Pakistan
that promised so much at partition to its citizens and that delivered
so little.
The
writer is a retired Federal Secretary of the Government of Pakistan
