Mr. President,
Why the Political Opportunism?
By Muhammad Abd al-Hameed
Lahore, Pakistan
We
are in despair, Mr. President. You have de-focused
the bright picture that you had created in our
minds about yourself. Now we see dark clouds on
the horizon.
You have many achievements to your credit. In
fact, we can become a great country in a few decades
if the successive governments follow most of your
policies. Unfortunately, this is not an occasion
to recount and praise your genuine achievements.
It is to mourn your resort once again to political
opportunism.
Your first fall from high moral ground was when
you chose the dubious and discredited path of
referendum instead of going to the people and
asking them to elect you directly for
an indefinite term. It would have saved you from
any stigma and given you huge credibility.
The next fall was when you allowed after the 2002
elections a motley crowd to gather and elect —
with just one vote — somebody as Prime Minister,
who was a giant in size but a pigmy in mind. Then
the government started making one major blunder
after another.
The charitable explanation was that you were giving
the politicians a long rope so they could hang
themselves. However, instead of dissolving the
National Assembly and asking the people to elect
a new one, you allowed even those politicians
to join the cabinet who should have been in jail.
The rope turned out to be so long that the politicians
made it a noose around your own neck when the
time came for your election for the next term.
Your political opportunism was at its peak in
leaving practically unscathed the two most corrupt
former Prime Ministers.
While allowing Mr. Nawaz Sharif to flee the country,
you left such a huge loophole that a truck could
run through it (He can try again any time to return
and cause you immense embarrassment.) Since you
were not going to hang Mr. Sharif, there was no
justification for indecent haste in sending him
out.
He should have been asked to appear before a court
and file a sworn affidavit voluntarily, saying
that:
a. he would serve the remaining jail term and
also face all pending cases against him if and
when he returned home;
b. he and his family would surrender all ill-gotten
assets, and;
c. he as well as his family members would retire
from politics forever.
You also did not deal with Mrs. Benazir Bhutto-Zardari
effectively. You could bring her back through
Interpol to face the cases against her. After
she was convicted, you could allow her also to
go abroad like Mr. Sharif and on the same terms.
That would have been the end of both of them.
Both Mrs. Bhutto-Zardari and Mr. Sharif became
nonentities after your take-over. After a few
months, they tested waters by issuing brief political
statements through their minions. When there was
no reaction from the government, they became bolder
and bolder.
You did not take the simple step of asking the
media to black out the two until they returned
home and faced the law. Instead, you allowed newspapers
and private television channels to boost them
so much as if they were the only leaders that
mattered. And now you are arranging a red carpet
for their return.
Mr. President, a few months ago you said, in the
context of the Chief Justice case, that it would
be an occasion for weeping if falsehood prevailed.
(Agar jhoot jeet gaya to ronay ka maqam hoga.)
Now that you have issued the ordinance for
"national reconciliation," please come
out of the Presidency and join the masses, which
are crying and weeping because the falsehood has
prevailed.
The people now hope and pray that your successor
as army chief imposes martial law. And then he;
a. asks you to go home (in case the Supreme Court
does not do it earlier),
b. abrogates the constitution and introduces presidential
system, the only way to eliminate instability,
corruption and blackmail;
c. makes a mincemeat of the corrupt in every field
(Being a former ISI chief, he knows all about
them.), and,
d. delivers all that you promised but did not
or could not.
Since no honest and competent political leader
will emerge even if the general elections are
absolutely fair and free, we have no choice but
to start all over again. That will be an opportunity
for truth to prevail.
(Abd al-Hameed is a prominent web commentator.
www.mahameed-articles.blogspot.com)
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