Nawaz Sharif:
A Good Man, Maybe, but No Hero
By Ahmed Quraishi
Islamabad, Pakistan
Mr. Nawaz Sharif’s latest
move scores him some points but does not make
him a hero. It is also a reminder for Pakistanis
that they need to generate new leadership for
the future instead of recycling old faces from
the past.
The only visible gain for the former premier is
that he did try to come back. The timing does
betray political expediency and dents his claim
to heroism. He had no choice. He moved the Supreme
Court in order to embarrass President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf. But the court’s ruling ended
up posing a bigger challenge to Mr. Sharif: Come
back or lose credibility among supporters. He
had no choice but to trample on his commitments
to his powerful overseas friends.
But credibility gained was lost somewhere else.
Mr. Sharif will again need the goodwill of his
friends in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Qatar when
he eventually returns to the country in a couple
of years or so. His feud back in 1999 was with
the powerful Pakistani military. Whether Mr. Musharraf
is still around or not, Mr. Sharif will still
have to contend with a bitter institution that
still remembers how it nurtured him only to see
him try to weaken it.
Of special significance here is Mr. Sharif’s
affront to the Saudis. The role of a guarantor
that the Saudis have played is steeped in Arab
Bedouin tradition. Former American secretary of
state James Baker knows something about this.
In 1990, he witnessed parts of an internal Saudi
debate on hosting the exiled emir of Kuwait after
the Iraqis invaded his tiny rich emirate in 1990.
The Saudis knew that once they accepted to play
host, it would mean standing by their guest –
the Kuwaiti emir – even if that meant going
to war with their guest’s enemy, Iraq. And
they eventually did.
The Saudis not only take such commitments very
seriously, but they do it discreetly. In recent
years, Riyadh has played host to several friends.
But Pakistan ’s Mr. Sharif will always be
remembered as the one who forced them to break
out of their customary calmness. The Saudis did
it reluctantly, but only in deference to a more
valuable friend and ally, Pakistan.
The embattled Mr. Musharraf has also scored some
much-needed points. He has for the time being
restored some respect and authority to his office.
His eight-year position on Mr. Sharif’s
exile has been vindicated. For Pakistani voters,
it is clear now who has been lying about it all
this time, although such moral high ground is
of little value in Pakistan ’s dirty and
below-the-belt politics.
The calm, swift, and largely peaceful way in which
the Musharraf administration dealt with Mr. Sharif
and his supporters deflates the media-inspired
theory built up since 9 March that the Pakistani
strongman was ‘losing his grip on power.’
How widespread this perception was can be gauged
from international news headlines on 9 September
that exaggerated the impact of Mr. Sharif’s
return.
For the time being, President Musharraf is firmly
in charge in Pakistan. And for a man who has received
several dents to his image in the past six months,
his team will do good to play up his recent gains
in stature, emphasizing how Mr. Sharif misguided
his supporters on how he used his foreign connections
to circumvent facing Pakistani courts, and then
how he lied about it for eight years while the
government maintained a graceful restraint.
But this is as much breathing space as Mr. Musharraf
can expect to get in the interim. He still faces
a bumpy road through his reelection process to
a new, five-year term. And his options continue
to include harsh measures as a last resort.
Under his watch, Pakistan did gain economically
and strategically over the past five years. Much
of the underlying policies need to be continued,
and this must have priority over any other consideration.
After all, what good are elections or democracy
in an economically weak country? Mr. Musharraf
has also done a commendable job expanding freedoms
and basic democratic rights in the country. This
military dictator’s record is far better
than our civilian leaders in this regard. Not
that his opponents will admit it. But that’s
Pakistani politics.
Yet, Mr. Musharraf must come to terms with the
fact that he faces a credibility problem. Major
parts of his reform agenda for Pakistan ring hollow
now after his alliance with discredited politicians.
As a result, his much trumpeted accountability
and anticorruption drive fell apart somewhere
along the way. There is little that Mr. Musharraf
can show in terms of reforming Pakistan ’s
perennially problematic politics. And apart from
creating a National Security Council, which is
a good step despite opposition mumbling, Mr. Musharraf
has done little to solve the real problem within
the Pakistani political system: the question of
power-sharing between a president and prime minister.
This feature of the Westminster-style system which
has worked under monarchy in Britain has wreaked
havoc in Pakistan, and it lies at the root of
the constant political bickering in the country.
Mr. Sharif’s latest move also highlights
a new trend in Pakistani politics: you will gain
popularity if you defy Musharraf even if you don’t
offer a credible better alternative. Imran Khan
is a case in point.
Mr. Musharraf will have to face these serious
questions and address them to the satisfaction
of the ordinary Pakistanis. And he should. It’s
never too late to do right.
(Ahmad Quraishi heads the Pakistan Project at
FurmaanRealpolitik, a Pakistani think tank based
in Islamabad. He also produces and hosts a talk
show on the State-run PTV News.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
