A Tale of Two Sharifs
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada
Old sages had a unanimous conviction on the character of man. A man’s real worth, they argued, could only be tested in wealth or power.
My late mother, steeped in traditional values of one’s genes defining one’s character, made it a habit to warn me against trusting one of lowly birth. A man of pedigree, she’d intone, would never betray your trust but one lacking in pedigree would never desist from stabbing you in the back.
And it was Nelson Mandela—a noble man of impeccable pedigree—came up with the last word to measure the pedigree, or lack of it, of a leader. A politician, he argued, would only think of the next election; a statesman would always think of the next generation.
Nawaz Sharif’s unprovoked and highly phlegmatic outburst against NAB—the National Accountability Bureau—last week betrayed his angst at the prospect of national accountability finally catching up with his family dynasty’s myriad shenanigans. The Prime Minister, not known for, or defined by, any streak of subtlety came out howling like the villain of a typical Punjabi movie against an institution charged with unearthing rampant corruption in Pakistan’s arcane corridors of power.
The outburst against NAB threatening to poke its nose into Nawaz’ sanctum—where his cronies might be self-deluding themselves that they were beyond anyone’s reach—was seen by many as a pre-emptive move. Since the man himself is incapable of any intelligent ideas, it’s a fair conclusion that those making up his cloistered kitchen cabinet deemed it wise to advise the ‘boss’ that offence was the best defense, especially when their ramparts were being threatened.
Encircling the wagons was state-of-the-art strategy in the Wild West, especially when poaching on territory that wasn’t theirs. Nawaz and cronies seem to have borrowed that idea from those wagon men who were marching westward in quest of gold.
There are gold-diggers and carpet-baggers aplenty in the Nawaz camp, too. It’s also axiomatic in the lexicon of power politics of Pakistan that a stint in power is a god-send to make as much money as possible—with no consideration of, or concern for, fair or foul means. Zardari and his henchmen turned it into an art, howsoever crude, no doubt, to milk wealth, literally, out of stones and boulders. Nawaz and his cronies have been desperately trying to at least match the skills of their precursors, if not excel.
No wonder it got the goat of many a Nawaz detractor when the PM, in his jaundiced frenzy, repeatedly bemoaned that NAB had been breaching the privacy of “innocent” people and harassing them for no reason.
Yes, brazenly and shamelessly, the man had the gall to repeatedly shed crocodile tears at NAB’s temerity to violate the privacy of Masooms!
Beg your pardon, Sir. I know you didn’t have decent schooling. And when I bring in ‘decent schooling’ it doesn’t mean you didn’t go to a fancy or posh school. My sense of decent schooling is anchored in schooling that opens up the pupil’s mind and hons his faculties of independent and educated thinking.
So I know that your inadequate schooling didn’t equip you, viscerally, to have any sense of what a Masoom is and who qualifies to be a masoom. But, please, know it well that none of those—robber-barons, swindlers, black-mailers et al.--around you and making up your inner-circle should aspire to be declared a masoom—clean as a whistle and not tainted with any black mark of scandal.
It should surprise no one keeping his gaze on Pakistan that Nawaz is a man of little resilience. The man is not known for having much of a backbone. He wouldn’t have groveled for mercy before a power-usurper like General Musharraf if he had one and fled to the safety of his Saudi sanctuary after cutting a deal with his tormentor.
So, no doubt, that Nawaz is showing backbone to NAB, and threatening to clip its wings because he thinks his back isn’t exposed or threatened. He’s sounding presidential because he feels secure that his imperial throne isn’t imperiled.
Nawaz’ new-found sense of security comes from the source that was, once, his undoing and had not only toppled him from his bastion of power but also sent him into ignoble exile.
Nawaz doesn’t feel unhinged because of the noble character of Pakistan’s other Sharif, General Raheel Sharif, whose stint at the head of Pakistan’s military establishment has been a source of blessing as much to Pakistan as to Nawaz, too.
Raheel couldn’t have given Nawaz and the country a more welcome gift than making a pre-emptive move to let everyone know he didn’t nurture any ambition to prolong his stint as Chief of Army Staff beyond his retirement date next November.
Raheel’s decision to not leave any one in doubt about his plans was quite in fitness with his character and upbringing. He has the impeccable pedigree of a soldier who has soldering in his blood. His father was an officer in the Pakistan army; his uncle Major Aziz Bhatti was not only a soldier but a hero who won the highest gallantry award of Nishan-e-Haider. So was his elder brother, Major Shabbir Sharif who brought laurels to the clan with his own bravery and was decorated with the same Nishan-e-Haider as his late uncle.
So gallantry and nobility are both ingrained in the character of General Raheel Sharif. His office of chief of the army is not, to him, a source or means to garner further rewards or amass wealth, which, incidentally, is the motto of the two Brothers Sharif, Nawaz and Shehbaz.
In the time since he took command of the Pakistan Army, General Sharif has had ample opportunities to wrap up the country’s bone-corrupt political claptrap, if he’d so wished. General Pervez Musharraf, a charlatan compared to the noble Raheel Sharif, did this when given half a chance by the same Nawaz whom Raheel has served with such aplomb, poise and dignity. There were other Khakis before Musharraf who usurped power on similar spurious and trumped up excuses.
Musharraf, never above mischief, tried to egg on Raheel when he unveiled his plan to step down at the end of his term. Musharraf himself was so shameless that he didn’t wince even once before giving himself innumerable extensions at the head of the army.
So, pedigree it is that defines the character of a man whether in civvies or in Khakis. Raheel hasn’t only given ample proof of his noble blood line but in doing so he has also given the world a peek into the disciplined force that Pakistan army’s elite officers’ corps is.
That the people of Pakistan have more faith in their army than politicians defining the country’s democratic setup has been borne out every time a public opinion poll is conducted. Raheel has come up head-and-shoulders above Nawaz or any other politician, for that matter, in every survey of the people.
Why the Pakistanis trust their army chief more than their prime minister and their generals more than their political leaders is because of the common perception—which is also the right perception—that the men in uniform are cleaner than those hogging the political stage.
Why is there a nationwide call for Raheel to stay on in his job? Because the people of Pakistan think that his continuation at the top is essential, given the fact that operation Zarb-e-Azb is not quite done yet and changing the guard in the middle of a war should best be avoided.
But Raheel wants the nation to trust that whoever may succeed him at the command of the army would have the same commitment to rid the country of the scourge of terrorism as he does. That’s faith in the chain of command and the inborn discipline of the officers’ corps. What Raheel wants the country to believe—and its people to trust—is that this ongoing and yet-unfinished war is not his own alone; it’s a cause as dear to the rest of the military chain of command as to him.
Raheel’s nobility should be given the people’s approbation. If the nation can put up with the ignoble Nawaz and his cabal of knaves and poltroons, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have faith in a successor to Raheel’s ability to finish the job commenced on his watch.
As for Nawaz and his party, the time will come, in two years at the most, to hold them accountable at the bar of the people; they too must pay for their sins like any other criminal. (The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat) - K_K_ghori@hotmail.com
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