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Pakistani politics as Greek tragedy

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Pakistani politics as Greek tragedy

By Irfan Husain
Saturday, 21 Mar, 2009

IN all conflicts, there are winners and losers. In the recent confrontation over the issue of the chief justice, the PPP is clearly the loser. Specifically, Asif Zardari has lost credibility and stature. Already in short supply when he started out a year ago, these attributes now stand sadly depleted.

While his close (and unelected) advisors also have egg on their face, it is the president who has been sorely wounded in this unnecessary confrontation. But in the long run, it is the PPP that has come out badly battered. A party that survived the worst dictators like Zia and Musharraf could dish out is now virtually unelectable for the foreseeable future.

The voluntary or involuntary departure of heavyweights like Aitzaz Ahsan, Raza Rabbani and Sherry Rehman is not something political parties can easily afford. And there are rumblings within the rank and file, as well as the second level leadership, that Zardari will ignore to his peril.

The reality is that while many PPP leaders and workers accepted Zardari’s elevation to the party’s top slot, it was a bitter pill to swallow. At the time, there seemed little option. After the murder of the charismatic Benazir Bhutto, some family continuity seemed to offer the best chance of winning the 2008 elections. Also, a leadership challenge at that time carried the risk of splitting the party. Finally, there was no single leader around whom the rank and file would have rallied at that critical juncture.

But a year down the road, the fissures are becoming visible. By his reluctance to leave the security of the presidency except to go abroad, the party’s leader is increasingly out of touch with the rank and file. His inner circle consists, according to credible accounts, of unelected individuals whose only credentials for giving political advice is that they have access to Zardari.

Another issue is to do with the powers he wields under the 17th Amendment. When he was elected, it was with the explicit understanding that his government would repeal this law that was imposed by Musharraf. In reality, it has nothing to do with the constitutional powers allotted to the president. In a parliamentary system, such as Pakistan’s was envisaged under the 1973 Constitution, the president has the non-executive role of symbolising the unity of the federation. He is supposed to be a neutral figure who stands above the fray. But nine years of Musharraf have distorted this role into the present executive presidency where the prime minister is a mere shadow.

In many ways, this arrangement is not unlike that being followed in France and Sri Lanka, to name just two countries. But in both, the president is directly elected. In Pakistan, the president wields absolute power, but without submitting himself to the test of popular support. Of course, this being Pakistan, this power does not extend to the armed forces or their intelligence agencies.

This multiplicity of power centres has given rise to some confusion abroad. Who does a foreign leader call when he or she wishes to discuss matters of substance? This question assumes greater importance than mere protocol when there is some tension between the players.

So where does the PPP go from here? The last election results showed that it the bulk of its support came from rural Sindh and southern Punjab. Its urban constituency has been severely reduced by the PML-N in Punjab and the MQM in Sindh. Tension between Benazir loyalists and Zardari supporters is simmering below the surface. Many of the former have been sidelined, and are sniping at the president at every opportunity. And recently, there has been no shortage of opportunities.

In the zero-sum game that is Pakistani politics, Zardari’s loss translates into Nawaz Sharif’s gain. While the PML-N chief has taken the moral high ground and pronounced that his support for the lawyers’ movement had nothing to do with his personal ambition, the reality is somewhat different. Mr Iftikhar Chaudhry’s return to the Supreme Court is bad news for the government and personally for Asif Zardari. And what is bad news for Zardari is exceedingly good news for Nawaz Sharif.

Although he is immune from prosecution as president, the possible striking down of the NRO, the Musharraf-era legislation that saw the withdrawal of all charges against Zardari, will severely damage this government’s prospects of completing its tenure. People forget that the NRO covered over 700 cases, most of them to do with MQM leaders and workers. If this can of worms is opened, the country’s courts will be flooded with hundreds of cases that will be resurrected.

And in any case, the government’s moral authority will be severely eroded in case dozens of charges are dangling against the president. So if the government and the ruling party think the worst is behind them, they had better think again. With a proactive judiciary again, we could be in for a rocky ride.

In a situation like this, the PPP needs a leader who can unite the party and lift sagging morale. And the country needs a president who can reach across party lines, and lead the fight against the common threat. Unfortunately, we do not have such a person in charge. Nor, to be fair, is one in sight across the political spectrum.

In the short term, I can see the PPP maintaining a semblance of unity. But should fresh elections be required before they are due, all the tensions and rivalries will surface, and the party’s position will deteriorate. The sad truth is that over this last year, little of substance has emerged by way of policies and legislation.

Since it was created in 1968, the PPP has stood for the poor and the dispossessed of Pakistan. Whether it has delivered on this promise or not is irrelevant: for the wretched of the land, it remains their party. After years in the wilderness, it must succeed now if it is to remain a viable alternative.

In classical Greek tragedy, the audience can see the approaching nemesis, while the protagonist is oblivious to his danger. The chorus sings in the background, warning the hero of his impending doom. At times like this, I feel I’m a member of the chorus.
 
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Fear, for the first time

By Kamran Shafi
Tuesday, 24 Mar, 2009

I KNOW this has been written about in the press recently by friend Ayaz Amir but I promise I had written about it last week as a postscript which could not go in because I had already exceeded my word limit. So here goes:

There was this chappie, see, who was hauled up before the panchayat (village council of elders) for an infringement for which he was sentenced to either eat 100 onions or get 100 whacks on his bottom applied by the village chowkidar with the chowkidar’s jutti. To spare himself the indignity of having to lie face down and be administered the whacks, the fellow offered to eat the onions.

Five onions later, when his eyes began to stream and his ears to smoke, the man said he would rather be beaten. Five hard whacks down, he said he would rather eat the onions. And so on it went until the idiot had eaten all the 100 onions AND got all of the 100 whacks.

So it has been with the New PPP in the matter of the restoration of My Lord Iftikhar Chaudhry and his brother judges: not only was it the target of the people’s ire when it repeatedly refused to honour its own solemn, written promises; it became the object of derision when it caved in after striking all those attitudes. It is actually looking quite pathetic now.


Also, it is not as if there were some voices of moderation within the party when it came to the person of His Lordship; virtually all of the top ‘leadership’ of the New PPP weighed in against him in no uncertain manner. You name him or her, and he/she did all to trash the man.

Take just Fauzia Wahab, the new information secretary of the party (I ask you!). When asked on Hamid Mir’s TV talk show many months ago if she thought the chief justice should be restored she smiled coyly and said, emphatically, “no”. Take the glib Babar Awan; or Naek; or Khosa; or Gabol; or whoever — all of them said variously: “The former CJ cannot be restored through an executive order”; “He has made himself controversial”; “He has made himself political”, and so on and so forth, ad vomitum.

Now each one of them has the gall to actually say their party was always in favour of restoring His Lordship, only they were waiting for Dogar’s retirement because you could not have two CJs. This is tripe and nonsense as we all know. For, if that was the only reason, why was (to take just one example) My Lord Ramday not restored as promised? He had nothing to do with Dogar being CJ.

It is tripe and nonsense is it not, this new and quite untenable stand taken by the New PPP? When will it, and its New leadership, even begin to understand that it stands on extremely thin ice because of it’s stupidly obdurate way of handling what was (and is even now) one of the gravest crises confronting our country post the East Pakistan tragedy?

When will the New PPP understand the power of the media, especially of the independent TV channels which beam news and current affairs into our homes 24 hours a day, seven days a week? When will it understand that it is no longer possible to pressure cable operators to move a channel from number 12 to 92 without consequences? As I have asked before, is there no one to stand up and most respectfully tell Mr Zardari the truth?

From some accounts he is a smart man, so does Asif Zardari himself not see what is happening in the country; how rapidly it is changing, and charting a new direction away from himself and from his New PPP? Does he not feel the fancy carpet upon which he stands, moving under his very feet? In the immortal words of Bob Dylan’s immortal song It’s all over now baby blue: ‘The carpet too is moving under you’, Mr President.

Whilst we should not be overly concerned with the internal doings of the New PPP, what it does affects us all. Because, importantly, it is the largest political party in the country which is represented in all the provinces and certainly does not deserve the treatment it is getting at the hands of its so-called leadership. Pakistan needs it like it does other political forces to fight the looming, almost upon us, most terrible Taliban storm.

I continue to believe that Swat was handed to the mullah too easily, too quickly; and like many others in the country and abroad I am of the firm opinion that those parts of our security establishment which are hand-in-glove with the extremists made this handover possible. There are too many stories, too many witnessed instances where the security forces simply did nothing when the terrorists went about killing people at will under the very noses of the troops stationed a few metres away from the grisly happenings.

Well, friends, prepare yourselves for the coming assault upon whatever there is of constitutional rule in the country in the not too distant future. Quetta is said to be almost within the grasp of the terrorists, who many say are about to declare Sharia there too. I believe that large areas of the city are already out of bounds for women and only wonder when exactly the first of the girls’ schools will be blown up there.

After Quetta, southern Punjab from whence, according to every evidence, come the fiercest and the most cold-blooded of the Taliban of Swat; after that Lahore itself. I dread the morning that Lahore will wake up to decapitated bodies hanging upside down at Mozang Chungi. Or outside Data Durbar. Or at Liberty Chowk where a dress rehearsal has already been carried out in the shameful attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team.

Amidst all of this the president allows Salmaan Taseer to carry on with his disgraceful antics and tamashas, denying the majority party the chance to form a government and insisting that he will only allow a sitting of the provincial assembly when any two parties form a coalition. What is it to him, please? If there is floor-crossing which is illegal, let the law take its course and disbar those that infringe the constitutional provisions. Why should calling a session of the provincial assembly remain the prerogative of just one man? Specially one who has fallen flat on his face several times already?

In any case, what great qualities does Salmaan Taseer have that so recommend him to represent the New PPP in Punjab? There are many gentlemanly figures within the party who would be far more fitting, far more graceful, far more mature, far more loyal to the party and to democracy, than this brash adolescent. For the very first time in my life I am fearful for our country. My Lord Chaudhry has his work cut out for him. May the Good Lord protect him and guide him.
 
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