Drunk, with Power: Info Power Tussle:
Brother- Son Message: The 3 Cooks: Lucky Soomro
By
LampPost
NEW YORK/ISLAMABAD: It has been an illuminating experience for the
LampPost to see the people in power from such close quarters. They
look absolutely power drunk, as if no one or nothing in the world
can touch them and their seat of power is secure for ages to come.
The Big Mush, or BM, radiates this sense more than anyone else.
Every time he opens his mouth to speak either to a dignitary or
to the media, he thinks he can get away with whatever he wants to
say. And sure he has been getting away, so far.
But
his slip of the tongue in Boston cost his media managers a lot of
restless night and uneasy 
days.
BM had answered the question at Harvard about appointing a new Army
Chief with a smile saying “I will appoint one when I step
down.” But then he had added, almost as if the words slipped
through his lips: “This would not be very far off.”
This obviously meant that BM was trying to say that he would appoint
a new chief soon. The remark was instantly picked up and reported
all over. It was a major bombshell in Pakistani politics as it is
evident that the moment a new Army Chief is appointed, a new player
enters the political equation and that means re-writing the entire
equation from scratch.
His
media managers, Info Minister Nisar Memon and Maj General Rashid
Qureshi were taking pains to dispel the impression that BM was serious
in his remark. How could he be, they were asking every one as BM
is no fool. But since BM’s remarks were available on tape
and in video films made on the occasion, they could not totally
deny. Their worst fear was that people within the army would start
nurturing hopes of getting elevated to the all-important position
of Army Chief and if their waiting period got unduly long, there
could be repercussions for BM himself.
So
a string of conflicting statements emerged from the Information
set up. Nisar Memon changed his explanations three time and finally
some one thought it was easier to write off the whole episode as
a joke and so he fed it to some complaint hacks that BM was actually
joking when making those remarks. Little do the hacks or the civilian
officials who put that spin know that naming a new chief is no joke
and no one can afford to joke about such an issue. They had been
caught with BM’s slip showing and poor guys could not cover
up his tracks.
Speaking
of the Info guys in New York LampPost saw an interesting tussle
between the uniformed and the civilian honchos of the Info set up.
Nisar Memon, the Info Minister had taken up the task of speaking
for the President to the great distaste of Maj Gen Rashid Qureshi,
the Press Secretary to the President. Before Memon was appointed
Minister, Qureshi was the chief voice and he enjoyed it to the hilt.
Now he has been forced to take a back seat and he does not like
it. His body language was much louder than his silent lips. His
expressions were contemptuous but probably he had been asked by
the Boss to stay quiet as civilians were supposed to be taking the
front row, at least until a new, positively inclined elected set
up comes into place.
Yet
Qureshi was not so quiet all the time. LampPost learnt on good authority
that he had vetoed, and all too seriously, that Memon should not
be allowed to join the BM team in Boston and Chicago, the two stops
where BM’s son and brother were all in all. And Memon was
not seen there.
But
one impression which gained ground because of Boston and Chicago,
could have a devastating impact on BM’s credibility. By allowing
his son and brother to manage his Boston and Chicago visits, BM
sent a clear message to all and sundry that if they wanted to reach
him, the path was through Boston and Chicago, or the son and the
brother. So finally the contours of the Mush political family are
emerging. Benazir had a Zardari handicap, Nawaz prmoted his brother
Shahbaz and Mush has a son and a brother to keep the family politics
going.
Coming
back to power and the way it radiated from BM, LampPost heard him
define power several times as if he had a new philosophy to divulge.
His remarks that he was shedding powers, instead of accumulating
them, left many in his own entourage wondering. Faces of Shaukat
Aziz and Nisar Memon were to be seen when he made those arguments.
These representatives of multi-nationals, now in BM’s cabinet,
must be thinking about their years in the international corporate
world and how this new philosophy could be put into practice, when
they return to it after their present stints.
Incidentally
BM’s unofficial delegation also included two prominent politicians
who had identical credentials. Both were sons of former military
dictators in Pakistan, Gohar Ayub Khan and Ejaz Ul Haq, and both
were caught on the camera listening to pop songs in New York. BM’s
only son from Boston was found by LampPost wondering what would
be his fate and how would he look in the company of Ejaz ul Haq
and Gohar Ayub in the future years.
Besides
Ayub’s and Zia ul Haq’s sons, the delegation which BM
brought from Pakistan included 70 people, all of whom were provided
with money to buy air tickets and lodging, but few were officially
included in the entourage. But most surprising inclusion was of
three cooks. We have heard tales of Nawaz Sharif getting “Sri
Paaye” and “Gajjar ka Halwa” on his foreign trips,
cooked by his chefs on chartered flight. But the speciality of these
three Mush cooks, is still a mystery. And only they can throw some
light on the eating habits of BM as well. Or was it a no confidence
on the chefs in America that he had to bring his own cooks? In short,
was it a security measure?
The
deception that BM was traveling light was obvious and got exposed.
Even the impression that he traveled on a scheduled PIA flight was
erroneous as that particular PIA flight, while coming to New York
and going back, had been cleared of all regular passengers who had
booked their seats weeks and months in advance. From Lahore the
flight actually took off three hours earlier than its scheduled
time, so no ordinary passenger could get on board. Some newspaper
hacks who were booked on that plane were also denied their seats
because they had not been cleared by security. Thus for all practical
purposes the PIA plane was a chartered flight with no one who had
actually paid his fare on board.
A
passenger on the flight told the LampPost officials tricked BM by
telling him to stroll to the rear of the plane and talk to the “ordinary”
passengers and gauge his popularity. So he did, and it was immediately
picked up by all the official media outlets. These passengers, mostly
his security details, lauded his policies and prayed for his long
life and an even longer tenure in office, as they were enjoying
the privilege of traveling to the United States because of his position.
The
most interesting feedback LampPost got was from Boston where the
son of a gun-wielding President was, according to an eye witness,
receiving “condolences” from friends for who had attended
the Harvard University event. This first son was earning the sympathies
because his father had not been able to impress the serious Harvard
crowd and was seen more as a joker than a visionary with some substance.
Headlines about people laughing at his father, made the son’s
situation more pathetic. But it takes some nerve for a military
dictator, who overthrew an elected government in a coup, to tell
a Harvard gathering that “I am the biggest democrat in the
country.” Laughs were genuinely well deserved.
Back
in the homeland LampPost saw many waiting for the fruits of the
big visit but since none was visible many faces were falling. Yet
the hordes of politicians who are pinning all their hopes on BM
and his big push to clear the elections hurdle have been encouraged
by judgments given by courts removing all heavyweight opponents
from their way.
The
story of how the Lahore High Court Chief Justice, Justice Falak
Sher and Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari had to face the wrath of
the army regime after they refused to accept pressure in Shahbaz
Sharif and Begum Kulsoom Nawaz nomination papers case, is now very
common. LampPost learnt that the government wanted the court to
entertain a writ filed by a known ISI sponsord lawyer, against Kulsoom
and Shahbaz. The lawyer pleaded that the Sharifs had gone to exile
under an agreement and they should be disqualified, an argument
these judges refused to entertain without solid proof.
The
Chief Justice, having the reputation of a being better than others
in the lot, did not entertain calls from Home Secretary Punjab Brig
(r) Ijaz Shah, Punjab Governor Lt Gen (r) Khalid Maqbool and finally
Tariq Aziz , Principal Secretary to the President. Gen. Musharaf
was so perturbed he ordered elevation of Justice Falak Sher and
Karamat Nazir Bhndari to the Supreme Court. A few days later, on
a petition filed by Khawaja Farooq , the tribunal immediately disqualified
Kulsoom and Shahbaz, saying their documents were not attested properly.
Ilahi
Bux Soomro, the Sindhi former speaker of the National Assembly,
is the most optimistic that this time he would be the chosen one.
Soomro had crossed this path some 17 years ago when another dictator,
Zia ul Haq was in the same position and assessing pliable candidates
to pick one prime minister. At that time luck had favoured Mohammed
Khan Junejo, considered the least vocal of all the candidates. It
was another day when the same lame and tame Junejo defied the dictator
and turned into his own man, to be dismissed in less than three
years. The dictator did not last for more than three months and
met the C-130 disaster. Will a Junejo sequence be replayed this
time?
