A
Shahbaz supporter in Lahore, defying Musharraf
Shahbaz:
Musharraf's Newly Created Mr. Braveheart
By
Najam Sethi
LAHORE:
On May 10, the day Shahbaz Sharif was to arrive in Lahore from
Abu Dhabi, Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid seemed unsure
about what the Jamali government was going to do.
He
took one major somersault from the past official stance by saying
that Mr Sharif would not be deported and that the opinion of the
Supreme Court in this connection would be honored.
But
when asked what ‘arrangements’ his government had
made in view of the arrival of the PML-N leader, he waffled most
embarrassingly and pretended that he was not aware of how the
provincial government in Lahore meant to tackle the situation.
At
the same time he kept hinting at some jack-in-the-box kind of
measure that Islamabad had up its sleeve to deal with what he
thought was a ‘slight distraction’. In the event,
as soon as Mr Sharif stepped out of the aircraft at Lahore airport,
he was escorted to a waiting PIA plane and swiftly deported out
of the country!
How
slight was the distraction after the government took its ‘pre-emptive’
measures in Punjab? A week in advance, the province started its
road-blocking activity to filter PML-N supporters being bussed
into Lahore.
Every
vehicle was inspected according to some mysterious criterion that
sifted the ordinary traveler from those going with the ostensible
purpose of welcoming Mr Sharif. The expert prediction, before
the Punjab government went into this most discomfiting-to-the-citizen
witch-hunt, was that the party would not be able to gather many
people in the streets of Lahore.
News
was printed that the party had told its leaders in Saudi Arabia
that they should not expect ‘the masses’ to spill
into the streets to make the return of Mr Sharif a great watershed
event in the political career of the ruling party.
What
was going to be at most a gathering of two to three thousand PML-N
supporters at the Lahore Airport was enlarged out of all proportions
when the government started rounding up the party’s leaders
under Section 144.
Suddenly
it was no longer the legally confused issue of Mr Sharif’s
return; it became a ‘human rights cause’ that no one
could ignore. Aroused by the prospect of getting the much-needed
limelight, PML-N leaders and aspirants began flocking to Punjab
from other provinces.
A
couple of Sindhi Leaguers actually arrived in Lahore undetected
sitting in a truck! That prompted the PPP to decide that, despite
the visceral enmity of the past, it would join in the cause of
welcoming Mr Sharif back. The MMA was not to be left behind. Forgetting
the acrimony which the PML-N had stirred up in the ARD on the
clerics’ submission to President Pervez Musharraf, it now
proclaimed that Mr Sharif was within his rights to return to Pakistan.
What
was seen by commentators as a minor storm in the teacup of Pakistani
politics was magnified by the government beyond all expectations
when it started pressuring the TV channels. It blackmailed the
ARY to dump its interview with Mr Sharif in London and barricaded
the office of the CNN in Lahore lest it show Mr Sharif emerging
from the Lahore airport surrounded by more supporters than the
government had bargained for.
The
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan now announced that it would
monitor how the government behaved during Mr Sharif’s return.
And Gallup polls of all hue and color had the citizens saying
almost unanimously that Mr Sharif had the right to come home.
The
position taken by the Musharraf government — and later by
the PML-Q government — that Mr Shahbaz Sharif could not
come back because he had signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia’s
Prince Abdullah that he would stay away from Pakistan for ten
(sic!) years, was never a solid legal and constitutional position
to take.
Now
the government has shown that it doesn’t give a damn for
legalities when it comes to the crunch. Who has won and who has
lost in this battle of nerves and tactics?
The
truth is that Mr Sharif was a minnow among politicians. He had
ruled under the tutelage of his more powerful and popular brother
Nawaz Sharif and was not overly popular himself with the party
which he had ignored as Punjab’s pro-active chief minister.
But by adopting a ham-handed strategy to prevent him from returning
to Pakistan, the government has made him succeed beyond expectation.
A
‘new-look’ Shahbaz Sharif was now quoting Nelson Mandela
and pretending to make the comeback of his political career. Seeing
the cards stacked up against the government in the Shahbaz affair,
PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto too has renewed her call to return
to Pakistan despite the negative fallout of the Swiss case.
To
be sure, President Musharraf has been badly advised. Now he has
succeeded in making Mr Sharif a hero beyond his wildest dreams.
Of course, that does not detract from the courageous and astute
political response mounted by Mr Sharif.
His
deportation will become an asset for him in time to come. The
government has catapulted him into the popular imagination and
he will be able to encash his goodwill one day. Full marks to
him!
The Sharifs agreed to a ten year exile in exchange for political
clemency. It was a desperate deal for desperate men in desperate
times. Like all such past deals, it was bound to be retracted.
But General Musharraf didn’t formulate a good strategy to
counter them. In the event, they have gained valuable mileage
while he is looking like a political novice obsessed with mere
survival rather than positive longevity. How’s that?
The
Sharifs tested the waters by means of a two phase, two track policy:
In phase one- track one they tried to loosen the bonds of their
“agreement” by sending members of their family to
Pakistan on one pretext or another; in phase one-track two, they
tried to create and exploit the perception that Shahbaz Sharif
had no hand in the Get-Musharraf coup of 1999 so that General
Musharraf could be “softened up” and an opening created
for Shahbaz.
This
strategy succeeded to such an extent that Shahbaz was able to
“escape” Saudi Arabia last year for America with the
covert “blessings” of General Musharraf. In Phase
two-track one, Shahbaz Sharif built a new media image for himself
as a great nationalist and patriot and administrator who was dying
to return home and face the consequences.
These
tactics also bore fruit when General Musharraf began to toy with
the idea of making up with Shahbaz on the condition that he should
make a clean break with Nawaz. Emboldened, the Sharifs launched
phase two-track two – Nawaz would maintain a stunning silence
while Shahbaz would gear up a media campaign to return to his
beloved country and face the consequences.
Accordingly,
the media was wound up and an appropriate reference made to the
Supreme Court. The government’s disarray in the face of
this cunning Sharifian strategy was reflected in myriad hot and
cold ways. The stage was set, the audience was assembled and the
spotlights were turned on for friend and foe.
Shahbaz
Sharif was once a political minnow in the shadow of his demagogic
brother Nawaz Sharif. He struggled to create a political career
for himself while Nawaz was first CM Punjab and then PM Pakistan.
But it wasn’t until 1997 that Nawaz relented under his father’s
pressure to make Shahbaz CM Punjab.
But
since two swords couldn’t be jointly sheathed, Nawaz kept
the reins of the Muslim League firmly in his own hands, relegating
Shahbaz to the position of a glorified provincial administrator
instead of allowing him to manufacture a popular political constituency
of his own.
But
all that has changed now. With Nawaz out of the reckoning, the
Sharifs have successfully manufactured Shahbaz as a courageous
and clever politician in the popular imagination. The idea also
is that since Shahbaz doesn’t carry the opprobrium attached
to Nawaz in many Pakistani minds, especially to those in the civil-military
establishment and the independent media, he will be an ideal candidate
to flog after General Musharraf has been inevitably hoist by his
own petard and his covenant with the Sharifs is no longer valid.
After
Nawaz and Benazir, we now have two new “courageous heroes-in-waiting”:
Asif Zardari and Shahbaz Sharif. Whatever General Pervez Musharraf
may say and feel and do, the fact is that more than ever the future
belongs to the mainstream PPP and PML-N. The sooner he accepts
this fact and realigns himself on the basis of ground realities
rather than personal dislikes, the better for himself and for
Pakistan. - TFT/Daily Times
