The Curse of Dynastic Politics
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada
There was a time-honoured tradition among our wrestlers of yore (pehlwans practitioners of eastern art of wrestling) that a maestro, of established reputation, would nurture and groom a string of disciples on his watch. These disciples—known as pathas would be classified and ranked according to their merit in the eyes of the master-wrestler. When challenged by a rival champion, the maestro would initially field a patha to take on the challenger.
I recall that toward the fag-end of his illustrious career, in early 1970s, Bholoo Pehlwan, with the title of Rustam-e-Zaman (World Champion) tucked under his belt, was challenged to a fight by the renowned Japanese free-style wrestler, Inoki. Bholoo Pehlwan accepted the challenge but shot back that since he didn’t wrestle free-style, his younger brother, Akram, would wrestle Inoki. The much-ballyhooed match took place in Karachi at which Inoki easily defeated Akram, dislodging his shoulder in the process.
Years later, in 1981, when I was stationed in Tokyo as the Deputy Chief of our Mission to Japan, I got to know Inoki well. His daughter was a class-mate of my daughter at the Sessan International School. Inoki used to muse about the quality of wrestling techniques of our traditional wrestlers because Akram had virtually melted before him in the contest.
An amiable, suave and cultured man, Inoki wouldn’t brag about his mastery of the art of wrestling. However, when drawn out by me at a social evening at our Embassy to give his opinion about the Pakistani wrestlers, he gently quipped that they were totally at sea as far as modern techniques of free-style wrestling were concerned.
Our traditional politicians—though largely made up of half-educated and land-holding robber-barons who have plied the art of politics only to feather their nests—have retained the pehlwan practice of nurturing and husbanding a string of underlings, from their families or clans, to carry on the trade after their eclipse. They may not have the skills of our illustrious pehlwans but have honed the practice of keeping it all in the family.
Aseefa Zardari’s debut at the PDM rally in Multan as PPP’s main speaker underlines the argument that dynastic politics—a curse for the country’s erratic democratic trajectory—is not only alive but becoming more firmly entrenched.
Aseefa, the younger of the two daughters of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari was anointed into that role, as need of the moment, to fill the chair at the rally’s rostrum left vacant by the indisposition of her brother, Bilawal, who has been quarantined since testing positive for Covid-19.
One might wonder how could a callow young lady, who has never before had exposure to active politics, hit the ground running at a large public rally. But that’s the art of Pakistan’s dynastic politics; one doesn’t have to have any schooling, coaching or grooming in politics. All that you need is a name, i.e. name of an established political family, and the rest is just a piece of cake.
In her autobiography, Daughter of the East, BB talks of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto (ZAB) taking care of her grooming, personally. He’d assemble all the domestic staff at their residence in Karachi, 70 Clifton, put BB up on the kitchen table and ask her to address them on a topic of her choice. BB’s grooming under her father’s shadow showed in her debating skills as a political leader.
But one wonders if Aseefa’s wheeler-dealer father, Asif Zardari, has the skills, himself, to tutor his daughter the way her mother was brought up by ZAB. Zardari’s whole time preoccupation with money-making deals precludes any serious possibility of Aseefa being coached by him.
But does it matter whether a daughter or son of an established political dynasty was coached or not? Is it of any value for a putative leader of Pakistan to have a good education or savvy political insight in order to inherit the mantle from their mentor? The answer, based on what we have witnessed on Pakistan’s political firmament is a big No.
The late Nusrat Bhutto, Aseefa’s maternal grandmother is on record for having boasted that the Bhuttos were born to rule! This bragging came after she’d seen that the arcane game of politics in Pakistan’s feudal ambience could be deadly, in the real sense of the word. Her husband, ZAB, with his insatiable appetite for political aggrandizement had been made to pay the ultimate price for his unbridled ambition.
Aseefa is not even a fully-fledged Bhutto. But it didn’t pose a hurdle to her older sibling, Bilwal, as their crafty father, AZ, didn’t lose a moment before re-christening his son as a Bhutto. So driven by raw ambition are these dynastic dinosaurs that they wouldn’t lose a sweat in their untrammeled quest to stay at the center of power to give themselves, or their progeny, a new makeover of pedigree. This could, of course, only happen in Pakistan where power is the sum total of these ‘born’ political leaders.
Maryam Nawaz is another case. She isn’t from a feudal family. But she’s closer than the Bhuttos/Zardaris to pehlwan pedigree; her late mother, Kulsoom, was, on her mother’s side, a niece of Bholoo Pehlwan. No wonder her combative style of politics seems to have a deep imprint of free-style wrestling on it.
But Bholoo, for sure, was never known for lying with such impunity and flair as Maryam. Her entire political stock is anointed by lying through her teeth, starting with her brazen declaration, on television, that she didn’t own any property anywhere in the world and she didn’t have any stake in the world-wide commercial enterprises of her two younger brothers.
However, dynastic politicians have never, for a moment, felt themselves hamstrung or constrained by rules of propriety or fair-play in politics. It’s all free-style for them. Inoki would be proud of the tactics of these dynastic dinosaurs even if he were coy about the techniques of his Pakistani rivals in the wrestling ring. Lying with a straight face is a major tool of their trade for these pampered dynasts.
Stating the truth has never been a forte of our dynastic politicians. This is on its fullest display in the PDM campaign targeted at unseating Imran Khan who, according to their tirades, isn’t an elected leader, democratic chosen in an open contest in which all these dynastic dinosaurs were also participants. The whole drama being staged by PDM from one city to another has only one shibboleth: Imran Khan is a ‘selected’ PM, in place at the helm of Pakistan courtesy, as per the charge, of the ‘establishment.’ In their insane frenzy to make their audience believe their lie, Maryam, Bilawal or, lately, Aseefa, conveniently gloss over their own pedigree: both ZAB and Nawaz Sharif are the product of the same ‘establishment’ being pilloried by their progeny.
That’s the fundamental flaw of dynastic politics. Its practitioners lay their stock by the end justifying the means. It’s immaterial to them that in their purblind lust for power, their mud-slinging at their rival may end up defacing the façade of politics and end up weakening the primordial institution of election as the path to leadership.
Readers of this column may see the same game going on, closer to home to them, where a loser is intent upon destroying the people’s faith in the fairness of the institution of election by calling it—against all evidence—as a flawed and corrupt machinery.
To dynastic players of Pakistani democracy, however, it’s of no significance what damage they may cause to the meandering course of democracy by harping the same tune time and time again and crying themselves hoarse in the process. In their lust for power, they are being like Samson, and intent upon bringing down the temple to slight their quarry.
(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)
