Nawaz Earns a B-Grade, To Date
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada
With all their well-known faults of character, the British had one sterling quality that stood them apart from the rest of the grubby colonizing crowd in its hay day: their uncanny ability to plumb the depth—or shallowness—of a man.
The ability to size a man’s potential for service to their imperial cause served the British Empire admirably. In the Jewel of their Crown, the prized possession of India, the British came to early recognition that its deeply stratified society had enormous potential to cater to the crown’s need for loyal Mandarins ready to give their best if only pampered and puffed up as a breed apart from the rest of the wogs. So they invented the Brown Sahib and made him the center-piece of the British colonial ruling hierarchy. The rest is history. The Brown Sahib left his Gora counterpart miles behind in the exercise of raw, arrogant, power.
The British also perfectly diagnosed the native temperament. Hence their famous description of the natives of India having the lowest boiling point in the world in temperament and sentiment. The Indians—or South Asians, lest I inadvertently treaded on some sensitive chauvinistic nerves among my valued readers—the British said, thought from their heart and not their mind.
The Britons’ apt character diagnosis of their South Asian subjects came to my mind, instantly, after reading a raft of opinion pieces in major Pakistani news outlets and paperson their take of Nawaz Sharif’s performance, to date, at the head of his third stint in power. What I couldn’t fail to perceive was their proclivity to jump to conclusions at the drop of the hat and write off Nawaz Sharif as a total failure as PM, making no allowance for the fact that the man has been in power for barely six to seven weeks.
Let me candidly admit that I hold no brief for Nawaz; nor, by the same token, do I nurse a grudge against him. He’s a home-grown leader, with all the necessary, or unnecessary, foibles and in-built handicaps that come in tow with it. On the natural ability scaleof leadership qualities, I would be doing my best if I give him anything more than 4. But what he lacks in God-given qualities of a leader, he more than makes up in his dogged determination to rise above his stature—call it, punching above his weight—and deliver as best as a mediocre would.
That fierce doggedness to rise to the occasion and acquit himself to the best of the requirements, has been in steady display from day-one of his current, third, stint in office.
Admit the fact that Nawaz, ruefully, has been dragging his feet on appointing people to some key positions, both at home and abroad. He hasn’t named an ambassador to Washington, the most important diplomatic assignment in the Pakistani almanac of diplomacy, and, by the same stroke, London, second only to Washington in its weight of importance and sensitivity. Why Nawaz is still shy of naming envoys to these top-most foreign posts is a mystery to one like me—a once-upon-a-time mandarin who knows the importance of attaching top-most priority to filling these positions. What is preventing Nawaz from putting men of his trust, in these two prime embassies is turning out to be an enigma wrapped in a riddle.
But Nawaz has made major—and thus far admirable—strides in two key directions of foreign policy initiatives: China and India.
Only a knave or poltroon would underestimate the importance of good neighbourly ties with these two major neighbours of Pakistan: China and India—in that order.
China has, time-and-again, been a true friend of Pakistan in real need. This column doesn’t have the capacity to encapsulate, even in brief, China’s sterling contribution to Pakistan. It’s one country that has stood by us, without wavering in both will and capacity to help, when here were no others ready to bail us out. Don’t think I’m exaggerating. For one who has served in a senior diplomatic position in China for three years, my word deserves to be taken with a grain of truth.
Nawaz has moved with lightning speed to cultivate China’s new rulers. They may be new but they are not a bunch of novices. China has a uniquely intelligent and efficient system of grooming its leaders—from the grassroots to the pinnacle of power. They don’t come to power unless they have gone through the mill, literally. That, more than any other thing, explains a succession of leaders, in the past three decades who had accumulated portfolios of versatile experience in all facets of governance before stepping into the top slots.
So Nawaz has, so far, shown, a canny ability in neighbourly initiatives by going to China within a month of regaining the office of PM and enlist China’s support in a raft of projects focused on dragging Pakistan out of the pits where Zardari’s kleptocracy had plunged the country in the past five years, and chart a clear course of recovery and emancipation, with Chinese assistance.
Naysayers among the Pakistani pundits and media barons and anchors have lost no time to start baying about the Nawaz government’s alleged grand-standing. They are caviling that scores of MoUs signed during Nawaz Sharif’s five-day-long Chinese Yatra would wither on the vine and come to no fruition.
These Pakistani Cassandras should be prepared to end up with a lot of egg on their faces.
Pakistanis may be consumed by flights of fancy and go on sentimental journeys. However, the Chinese are known for their Sang Froid. They don’t indulge in the luxury of clutching at straws. They take a plunge into the water only after having taken its temperature and making sure they wouldn’t freeze. China has a visible stake in bringing Pakistan up to that level of performance and efficiency where its southern neighbour may, eventually, provide it with a short-cut to the waters of the Arabian Sea and become an efficient and viable corridor for accelerated movement of good to, and from, China across Pakistan.
A similar, early, awakening on part of Nawaz in regard to India should be given the generous welcome it deserves.
Indeed India is a tougher nut to crack than China. There is a history of not only deep-seated animosity and hostility but the two countries have also the dubious distinction of having missed a number of opportunities in the past to bury the hatchet. But Nawaz is right—and must be given credit for it—in making a fresh attempt to re-engage India and recalibrate the tools of engagements de-commissioned since the tragic events of Mumbai, circa, November, 2008.
So it was a smart move for Nawaz to send a special emissary of his to Delhi to extend an invitation to Manmohan Singh to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience. That ‘convenience’ may not happen anytime soon, given India’s own roster of problems and the impending general elections of 2014. But at least the point has been made that Pakistan is serious to break the logjam and thaw the ice, as much as possible.
The choice of my senior Foreign Service colleague and mentor, Mian Shehryar, as the emissary to Manmohan was impeccable. With his royal Bhopal roots and sterling pedigree the suave and dapper Mian Shehryar was the right man for the right job. He and Nawaz share more than a passion for cricket and good music. So the man from Lahore’s Raiwind hasn’t , quite, been wasting his time in hibernation of past so many years. He has learned the ropes of international diplomacy, to the satisfaction of those who know its importance in today’s global-village.
On the domestic front, it’s still too early for performance evaluation, in the real sense of the term. But Nawaz’ priorities seem right.
The electricity conundrum is more than that. It’s a hydra-headed monster, and Nawaz is no miracle-man to slay the dragon in a flash. But coming up with a national power scheme for the next five years is a step in the right direction.
Wiping out—at least for the time being—the lethal ‘circular debt’, running into something like 550 billion Rupees, was warranted and according it top priority is indicative that Nawaz is not mixing up his agenda items. Tackling the haemorrhaging PIA, the Steel Mills, the trudging Railways—and other money-gulping monsters of their ilk—is what he should be doing to stem the rot. But Zardari and his thuggish cabal have left behind an Augean Stables of corruption. Nawaz will have to invent a Hercules to clean up the monumental mess.
Where he seems still at bay is in the context of Karachi, the city that holds the key to the success of his ambitious economic revival for Pakistan. Nawaz needs far more energy and determination to stem the rot in that perennially bleeding city than he has thus far manifested. Despatching Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar to Karachi, last week, may have been intended to send the right signal to the city’s tormentors that Islamabad may not be inclined to give them a free pass forever. But a much more robust action is needed.
The thugs running berserk over Karachi are not the type that would be cowed down by Nisar’s tough words. Karachi has been in the clutches of terrorists and goons of political mafias for more than a decade. The Governor of Sindh is still the same old tribune of ‘Don’ Altaf. The Chief Minister, a crony and courtesan of Zardari, is an insult to the dignity of every intelligent denizen of Karachi. Between these two, the people of Karachi are caught in the teeth of a pincer.
Karachi hasn’t seen its worst days, yet. Nawaz will have to move with calculated speed and doggedness to bring the thugs of Karachi to their knees and liberate its cowering citizenry from their dirty hands.
So, fellows, don’t rush into judgment on Nawaz with such unwarranted haste. It’s much too early to pronounce a verdict on him. He has been handed down a can of worms and would need time to sort it out. Patience may not be your strongest suit but what other options do we have as a country. Surely, you wouldn’t like to see Nawaz being meted out the treatment, a la Morsi, at the hands of swaggering generals? K_K_ghori@yahoo.com
(The writer is a retired ambassador and career diplomat)
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