Imran Calls the Nawaz Bluff
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada

Pakistan’s terminally diseased political culture has, little wonder, produced monsters—like Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif—masquerading as politicians and leaders.

The most damning indictment of Pakistan’s supposedly democratic culture is that it has mostly been a hostage to autocrats, in both the uniform and the mufti. In fact, the politicians this infested culture has spawned have been far removed from the basics of democracy. It’s not too far-

fetched to describe such shaded ‘democrats’ as wolves in sheep’s clothing. No wonder that Pakistan’s experiment with democracy has been plagued—to some beyond repair—because it has been entrusted to those whose credentials were flawed and to whom being in power was a license to indulge in corruption.

Before Imran Khan (IK) appeared at the helm of affairs in Pakistan, in July 2018, the previous ten years had been shared between two notoriously corrupt political leaders, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif whose sole concern in office was to feather their nests at the expense of the country.

NAB, the watch-dog body invented by an autocrat-in-uniform, General Pervez Musharraf, has collected tons of material evidence against these two robber-barons. IK entered office on his promise to the nation that he’d hold these profligates accountable for their white-collar crimes and at no cost spare them or relent on his ‘crusade’ to not only punish them but force them to return their loot to Pakistan.

Despite IK’s well-known zeal and elan to bring these vagrant political actors and looters to book, NAB’s exercise in holding them culpable for their whole-sale loot and plunder of Pakistan has been conspicuously slow and tardy. Part of the blame for this painfully-slow progress should be laid at the door of Pakistan’s judicial system which has not only been grinding at a snail’s pace but, more often than not, has been unambiguously biased and accommodating in favor of these mega-corrupt robber barons of Pakistan.

These shaded and impugned politicos have, no doubt, taken full advantage and latitude of judicial laxity to their utmost favor. But they haven’t limited their desperate efforts to save their skins only to the largesse of a ‘kind’ judicial system. They have also been making a virtual bee-line to the powers-that-be so notoriously famous for their role of king-makers in Pakistan. In everyday parlance, they are better known as ‘the establishment.’

But when shunned by the military establishment—as recently revealed by the head of ISPR—and politely told to settle their matters with the political establishment and the judiciary, they used the only card left in their hand: try blackmail the IK government in power.

Imran Khan has been very consistent in his public posture that he will not grant an NRO to these shaded politicians and will not barter away his obligation to the people of Pakistan to squeeze the likes of Nawaz and Zardari out of their loot. His moral high ground, vis-à-vis these individuals is in marked contrast to Parvez Musharraf whose lust for power goaded him into cutting a deal with them. Musharraf’s ‘crime’—and I can’t think of any other expression to describe his blunder—gave a fresh lease of life to these characters and how they have repaid the nation for Musharraf’s kindness is history. Typical of such cases—where you first and foremost bite the hand that feeds you—they engineered the downfall and eclipse of their mentor, Musharraf. Thence the two of them—Zardari and Nawaz—ruled Pakistan, in succession, for ten years and bankrupted it.

Frustrated in their repeated attempts to eke out an NRO from Imran, the last desperate lunge witnessed last week’s so-called All Parties Conference in Islamabad. The show was organized by Zardari and son Bilawal, in cahoots with Shahbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz and, last but not least, the Pakistani Machiavelli, Maulana Fazalur Rehman, a charlatan to boot.

But while the host father-and-son duo, Zardari and Bilawal, kept a low profile, the center-spot and limelight were, accorded to Nawaz Sharif, who has been absconding from the reach of law in London on the spurious excuse of medical ‘treatment’ of still-unspecified ailments. By the way, Nawaz too was generously facilitated by an obliging Lahore High Court to flee the country despite being a condemned convict. So unprincipled is he that while the court had allowed him to go abroad for treatment for six weeks, only, he has been absconding, handily, for well over ten months.

Nawaz was billeted to be the keynote speaker at the conclave via a long-distance video call from London, a la the MQM supremo Altaf Hussain, whose wings have since been clipped. The news, when floated to put IK and his government on notice in an effort to blackmail, had unnerved some of IK’s colleagues, too. They voiced their concern, with the conviction of law to buttress their argument that a convict and a proclaimed offender that Nawaz is, couldn’t be allowed to address any conclave in Pakistan, live on television. The news media watchdog, Pemra, was asked to not allow Nawaz’ address to be streamed, live, from London.

But IK overruled the Cassandras of his team. With the benefit of hindsight it wouldn’t be unfair to say that his vision was spot on in exposing Nawaz as a totally opportunistic, unethical hypocrite.

Nawaz made an utter fool of himself by claiming to be a champion of democracy and someone run down by the military establishment. Those who didn’t know Nawaz’ past may have had a reason to be impressed by his painting himself into an underdog oppressed by those who, according to him, had no business poking their noses into the democratic process. He may have given airs to himself by being dramatic and hectoring that his grouse wasn’t with Imran but with those who, according to him, were responsible for bringing him to power.

One should refresh Nawaz’ memory by reminding him that he, of all the people, was the one nurtured and foisted on this nation by those very people he had the gall to decry as spoilers of the game. But for the kindness of General Ghulam Jeelani, the then Governor of Punjab under General Ziaul Haq, Nawaz and family would be unknown entities today struggling to keep their family business of selling steel billets, in addition to pots and pans.

Nawaz, an ill-educated upstart that he’s thought he would be winning hearts by swinging his bat like a blind man against those who nurtured him into a wayward politician that he’s today. But devoid of basic decency of respect of law, a proclaimed offender and a fugitive from law that he has become he presented to the people of Pakistan the image of an opportunist whose desperation to rehabilitate himself as a leader is leading him, instead, into a blind alley.

Did he have any inkling that his juvenile outburst against the military establishment—his mentor of yesteryear—was playing into the hands of Pakistan’s arch enemies next door in India? The Indian news media—now so servile to BJP’s Hindutva agenda—went to town within hours of Nawaz’ anti-military tirade, reporting his ludicrous narrative in bold and screaming headlines. This was reminiscent of another pro-India narrative of his, of not too long ago, when he faulted Pakistan’s intelligence outfit for sponsoring the November 2008 act of terrorism in Mumbai. It was mana to Pakistan-baiters in India then as on this occasion.

So, while Nawaz has ended with egg all over his face, Imran Khan has come out of the episode as a man of foresight and political wisdom. His assessment of Nawaz’ naivete has proved him right and added to his stature. The people of Pakistan can see, in proper perspective, how low a political opportunist—be that Nawaz or Zardari, or anyone of their ilk—can sink in Pakistan in a blind game of one-upmanship.

Nawaz and his equally mentally-bunkum minions and cohorts may not have the gumption to admit—it would, in any case, be too much to expect of them—at this stage that he has committed an act of political hara-kiri by presenting himself as a votary of Modi’s India. However, any pundit would say that there couldn’t be a more befitting obituary for an upstart politician who was never meant to be a leader. But in Pakistan’s star-crossed political history he isn’t the only one with that dubious distinction. There are many more, too, wearing this dunce cap.

K_K_ghori@hotmail.com

 

(The writer is a former ambassador and career diplomat)