When Will the Curtain Fall on the PDM Drama?
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada

Ask anyone close enough to Imran Khan (IK) and he’d tell you that ‘Kaptan’ isn’t known for his patience. When he was leading the Pakistan cricket team he was, rather, known for his short fuse and temper tantrums.
At the helm of Pakistan—and having been an active player in Pakistani politics, aka theatre of the absurd, for nearly a quarter century—IK has developed some quantum of patience, but not much. That’s why his uncharacteristic display of patience, vis-à-vis the motley actors known for their rivalry, if not hostility, to him is taxing the imagination of many a pundit.
There’s nary a doubt that IK’s sworn enemies assembled under the canopy of PDM—the high-sounding acronym for ‘Pakistan Democratic Movement’—have been provoking him, and along with him the Pakistan army’s top brass through their unbridled rhetoric at recent public meetings. Their temerity in virtually calling names to IK and the ‘establishment’, euphemism for the GHQ brass and intelligence machinery, is truly amazing. The likes of Maryam Nawaz, desperate in her incontinent urge to be dubbed in the colors of the late Benazir Bhutto, seem to have taken leave of their senses in castigating the military brass by calling out their names.
Maryam, in her rhetoric-laced full-throttled address at the rally in Quetta on October 25, was pouring scorn on Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, who may have stepped down as Special Assistant to IK on Information but still holds charge of coordinator on CPEC—a mega-project calculated to infuse a new life into Pakistan’s moribund economy.
What may aptly be named as ‘charge of the cowards brigade’ began with Nawaz sharif’s long-distance address, from his foxhole in London, at the Gujranwala rally, on October 16. The choice of October 16—which happened to be the 69th death anniversary of Shaheed-e-Millat Liaqat Ali Khan, Pakistan’s first PM, gunned down at a similar public meeting at Rawalpindi’s Company Bagh in 1951—may have been accidental. One can’t expect from the crowd of barely-lettered politicians of sub-low intelligence gathered in the crowd going around with the high-sounding title of PDM, to have any inkling of the importance of October 16 in Pakistan’s political almanac.
The very first assault—a brutal and fatal one—against Pakistan’s then-infant democracy was made with the murder of Liaquat. Pakistani democracy hasn’t, to date, recovered from the after-effects of Liaquat’s tragic murder. It was, therefore, nothing short of ironic that the progeny of those who conspired to have Liaquat killed and eliminated from the scene were coming together at a public rally, on one platform, to launch a frontal assault against IK, the only politician since Liaquat with the fires of dedication to Pakistan that animated Liaquat’s illustrious career.
In his incendiary tele-address at the Gujranwala rally, Nawaz blatantly upped the ante against both the military establishment and IK. The coward that he’s, Nawaz had no shame in venting his frustration at the very institution that has nurtured him and made a buffoon like him into a three-time PM.
The fuse lit at Gujranwala was turned into a flame at the Karachi rally of PDM, on October 19, with Nawaz’ ambitious and unrestrained daughter, Maryam, leading the charge of the cowards brigade against IK and the establishment.
But real action, in Karachi’s context, transpired at the mausoleum of the nation’s founder. In a brazen act of buffoonery and skullduggery, Maryam’s unhinged husband, Safdar, had no qualms in desecrating the dignity of the Quaid’s grave and put up a show of sloganeering befitting a third-rate Bollywood movie’s villain.
With the bone-corrupt Sindh Waderashahi fully on board with Safdar’s antics at the Quaid’s mausoleum, it became an ordeal to register an FIR against him; the Sindh IG of Police, a page-boy of Zardari, wouldn’t agree to hold Safdar accountable for his charade.
To add insult to injury, a macabre tale was spun around Rangers ‘abducting’ the IGP to force him to sign Safdar’s arrest warrant.
Another drama was in store at the hotel from where Safdar was arrested. A henchman of his produced a quick ‘documentary’ to come up with evidence that Safdar was arrested by Rangers breaking down the door of his hotel room. It was a meticulously-choreographed drama.
The success of their Karachi charade—with lots of help from an overly-charged segment of the news media carrying a permanent chip on its shoulder against IK and the military establishment, emboldened Maryam and whetted the appetite of her motley crowd to uptick their charge against their quarries—IK and the military brass—at the Quetta rally on October 25.
There was hardly any exaggeration in some news reporting of the Quetta rally that it could easily have been a BJP-sponsored event. Without batting an eyelid, some speakers at the rally brazenly called for Baluchistan’s secession from Pakistan—a principal target of India’s hybrid war against Pakistan.
Maryam Nawaz added her own fuel to the fire at the raucous event by calling out Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, by name, as an erstwhile “king of Baluchistan.”
Nawaz and his acolytes might feel they are taking their battle to the ‘enemy’ quarters by daring IK and the military brass and literally calling pox- on- your- house.
The ball is, true to the proverb, now in the court of IK and the establishment. They have time to think out their response now that the PDM circus has taken a time out until their next meeting, announced for Islamabad, on November 22.
It’s beyond contention that both IK and Gen Qamar Bajwa, the military chief who has been in the cross-hairs of Nawaz and his unrestrained daughter, are playing their cards close to their chest. They have the luxury of time to think out their response. However, they must decide where to draw a line under the out-of-bound exuberance of the PDM clowns dancing to the tune set for them by Modi and his propaganda machinery. An act of treason has been committed at the Quetta jamboree which can’t be allowed to pass or go un-responded.
There must be a limit to the long rope presently being extended to the PDM crowd. Their bluff shouldn’t be allowed to snowball into an open rebellion. Confrontation, getting out of bounds, may end up exacting an unwelcome price from national institutions as well as from the current democratic dispensation.
IK, on his part, seems more intent on taking his own crusade against Nawaz right to where this fugitive from law is comfortably ensconced—to London. In a widely propagated TV interview with a pro-government team of anchors, he made no bones of his intent—if it boils down to that—to take up the tangled issue of Nawaz’ forced repatriation to Pakistan with his friend, PM Boris Johnson of Britain.
From the current lay of the chips on the political chess-board, it may not be far-fetched to contend that the coming days and weeks are going to be turbulent and ugly in Pakistan. The game plan of the jokers fulminating and flexing their muscles against IK and Bajwa aims at softening their targets and unnerve them.
There’s virtually zero chance of success of this nihilistic plan. But its nuisance value shouldn’t be under-estimated. That’s why IK and General Bajwa ought to pull the rug from under the jokers’ feet before they mess up the pitch. It’s their call. The nation is waiting.
K_K_ghori@hotmail.com
(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)