Nawaz Sets out on Mission Straightaway
By Salahuddin Haider
Karachi, Pakistan
If Nawaz Sharif has set out on his mission to correct the wrongs done to the country, it is no surprise. Those who have had the chance to see him closely, and I am fortunately one of them, know full well that he is a man of words. His two earlier stints in office as the chief executive of the country bear enough testimony to that.
The greatest quality in him is his humility and determination to achieve his goal. When for the first time he was in the coveted office as Pakistan’s prime minister, he was blessed with enough experience of managing the provincial financial ministry, and later as the chief minister of the country’s main province, which because of its population, and age-old high academic standards, is endowed with skillful human resource, and has contributed immensely to national progress, and yet he was maltreated and summarily removed from the high office for no rhyme or reason.
Nawaz tried to recover the ground, denied to him earlier, by tactfully handling the sensitive issues facing the country, on domestic and external fronts. Fortunately, he had an excellent team with him from the beginning of Ishaq Dar, Sartaj Aziz, Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Mushahidullah, PervezRashid, etc. only to be blessed later by an efficient younger brother Shahbaz to pick up the thread of the complex job of developing Punjab, from where he had left it before being elevated to the higher pedestal. In the bureaucracy, he found people like(late) Anwar Zahid, and Mehdi to look after the administration. To the great satisfaction of Nawaz, who had earlier been credited with rebuilding the Muslim League party, which after finding a new homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent in 1947, fell apart. But Mian saheb, through sheer dedication, and commitment to the cause of proving an upright Pakistani, took over the mantle of its leadership after Mohammad Khan Junejo’s removal from office by late General Ziaul Haq,, and galvanized it into a viable organization ,capable of coming up to peoples’ expectations. Muslim League for long remained a dead horse. Today it is a power in the true sense of the word.
His removal through a military coup by the then army chief General Musharraf, who he had elevated to the position of honor after retiring General Ali Quli Khan, halted all his ambitions to take the country to becoming an economic power at a time when the world was looking for newly emerging markets. In his days as prime minister for a second term his track record showed that the country’s economy was forging ahead at 6.5 percent, second only to China. Even the Indians learnt from him. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vapjpayee is still alive to substantiate this claim. However when the Indo-Pak amity had begun to assume new dimensions, the Kargil adventure reversed the whole process. Successive events, taking place during his trial for alleged hijacking of Musharraf’s aircraft to the after effects of Afghanistan crisis spilling into Pakistan while he was forced into exile for 7 long years, are too tragic and mournful to be recounted.
As a party head, arbitrarily debarred from elections in 2007, he seemed the least bothered, never even tried to seek legal redress, and got himself involved in the task of rebuilding the nation’s drooping morale, triumphing in the end with an astounding victory in the May 11elections. The historical background of Nawaz’s struggle for six long years has placed him in a position of strength to lead his nation back on the road to recovery, but it is stupendous task.
Dark, ominous clouds of despondency and disappointment need to be replaced with hope and promise for the future. Everyone, including Nawaz himself, is aware of the hurdles ahead. But the old English adage that where there is will, there is way, holds good still today. Even before launching his electioneering ,he, like a polished statesman, had appointed teams to work on plans to rebuild the economy, and handle the arduous task of overcoming the load shedding, terrorism and blood-letting at home to yet another challenging task of restoring the country’s image in the world, where our green passport once again would do us proud as Pakistanis. Nawaz knows his job, has a load of past experiences to handle the ticklish problems in foreign affairs. Without losing time, he directed his financial wizard Ishaq Dar to prepare a national budge, in line with the hopes and aspirations of the people, and relayed a clear message to the world that it was in Pakistan’s interest to accept the offer of negotiating peace with the Taliban. Likewise, in tune with the pressure exerted by him in election speeches, he made it clear to the Americans that drone attacks, violating the Pakistani skies, and carrying the stamp of illegality (there is no UN mandate behind it) have to end. The world must understand that Pakistan is a nation of 18 million capable souls, determined to protect its sovereignty and no longer willing to carry the baggage of slavery of the past. His repeated assertions during electioneering, were explained to the US ambassador Richard Olson when the latter met him in Lahore on May 24, that drones will have to end now.
Luckily for him, Tehrik-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan took a similar posture during the call on him by the US ambassador to his Zaman Town residence in Lahore the same day. The PTI chief made it abundantly plain that he or his party will not accept drones through Pakistani territory any more. American President Barrack Obama, feeling pressure of the Pakistani electorate, showed a visible shift in his policies, placing the drone attack policy from CIA into Pentagon hands. But Obama remained adamant on pursuing with the use of weapon of mass assassination on Taliban in the Pakistani tribal belt. His words to help Pakistan in the energy sector, and having long-term relationship with
Pakistan, were welcome but past experience has proved such promises meaningless. Nawaz, along with Imran who is to run the country’s worst affected area by these drone attacks in KPK, were clear in their minds of their goals, and unhesitatingly sent that message across to the US leadership in Washington that they ought to be taken seriously.
Negotiations with Taliban is in our interest, and Nawaz again is blessed with the experience of dealing with Afghan leaders during the post-Soviet withdrawal days from Afghanistan seems in better position to handle the issue intelligently. Luckily for him, the army misgivings about ties with India, too had evaporated and replaced by a desire to have peace in the region. General Kayani and colleagues are quite clear in their perception that democracy alone can lead the country to progress. The army therefore will not like terrorism to continue for long and if an honorable way is found to achieve this goal, it would be in accordance with the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the Pakistanis.
The new government of the PML(N) of which Nawaz is now the leader, ,is clear in its vision to tackle the energy crisis. It has to end the circular debt issue to overcome a problem which has gone from bad to worse and must now end to provide relief to the people. He has solved the political problems through goodwill shown to other political parties, accepting National Party nominee as the chief minister in Balochistan, and allowing Imran and PPP to form governments in KPK and Sindh, thus redefining the
meaning of reconciliation as effective tool for deliverance, rather than exploiting it as rhetoric in the past. Nawaz as a leader, does not wish to lose time. He has planned hurricane visits soon after oath taking to Saudi Arabia, China and Turkey to cash on their goodwill for Pakistan and also on his personal relationship with the leadership of these friendly countries.
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