Biggest exposure: of courage and dignity

Islamabad diary

On the financial side the Panama revelations have only confirmed what we already knew…that Nawaz Sharif and family have wealth stashed abroad and have prized property in central London. Raymond W Baker in his book ‘Capitalism’s Achilles Heel’ took the covers off these details way back in 2005. The Observer had a story in 1998.

Nawaz Sharif’s consistent defence all along has been denial. The Leaks make denial impossible. That is why he is sweating and is bereft of answers except the lamest, such as his words on arrival in London that he doesn’t know what he is being charged with…which would be funny if it didn’t sound pathetic.

But this scandal is doing something more: exposing the true worth of our heroes. Asif Ali Zardari was hit by similar if not graver charges. But he never blubbered, like what we are seeing now. He faced prison and trial like a man and never resorted to the outright falsehoods we are hearing now.

Pressed for explanations – whether regarding the Cotecna case, the saga of the mysterious necklace, the Swiss bank accounts or whatever – he would smile. But he never looked shattered the way the entire Sharif clan looks…and outright lies, as noted, he would avoid. And he kept control of his nerves. So much so that the late Majid Nizami, Nawai Waqt editor and no friend of the PPP or anything to do with the Bhuttos, called him Mard-e-Hur, a bold spirit.

Contrast this with the courage and resolve of Nawaz Sharif in the midst of the Panama crisis. He looks lost and has precious little to say, except the same old denials. And the entire family is behaving as if they are facing a murder trial and are expecting the worst from a hostile bench.

Hamza Shahbaz whom no one would ever accuse of having come near a book in his life but who yet carries himself as crown prince of Punjab has said not a word in defence of his beleaguered uncle, the PM, and his sons who are his cousins. For good measure we now hear that Hamza too has fallen ill. Shahbaz Sharif has said not a word. Nawaz Sharif’s problem is Panama Leaks and the Khadim-e-Aala misses no opportunity to take on the opponents of his Orange Train.

In this situation Maryam Safdar is reduced to tweeting that there is no schism in the family. There may well be absolute unity but when you have to say as much, when you have to protest your virtue or your innocence, eyebrows are inevitably raised.

What takes the prize is the picture of Nawaz Sharif all sentimental and virtually in tears as he kisses his mother’s hand and receives her blessings before his departure for London. Such private moments are best kept private. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth when the suspicion is aroused that you are trying to use such scenes to elicit public sympathy or tell the world how pious and virtuous you are.

Nawaz Sharif is being asked serious questions. He should try answering those or at least put up a brave face. Tear-jerkers such as the picture of him with his mother are not going to solve his problem. I don’t remember Asif Zardari falling back on such gestures and making a public spectacle of them.

Thieves are caught all the time; dacoits are nabbed. But even in their worst moments the best of them don’t lose courage or dignity. Some even go smiling to the gallows. Ghulam Rasul alias Chotu, the Rajanpur king of dacoits against whom an operation is currently on in the forests along the River Indus is facing the ordeal of his life. But he is fighting back and inflicting heavy losses on the police force.

Amazingly he is still accessible by phone and is telling whoever talks to him that he will surrender to the army but not the local police which made a criminal of him. I would ask Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa, the army’s spin doctor, to look into this offer. Using helicopter gunships against the Chotu gang would make not just the army but Pakistan look silly. Please don’t do it. Much better to let him surrender before the army.

Our prominent dacoits and gangsters – whether Chotu or Uzair Baloch, king of Lyari – don’t pretend to be anything else. They are in this respect more honest than our leaders whose stock-in-trade is falsehood and mendacity and who, at the first hint of pressure, come close to nervous breakdowns and must go to London for treatment of their sensitive conditions.

These knights who never tire of proclaiming their undying love for the masses, no Pakistani hospital is good for them. They must spend the last week of Ramazan in the Holy Land. But when it comes to medical checkups and treatment nothing less than American, British or German doctors will do.

For the Hereafter, prayer and the Holy Land, and endless prayer at that; for the here and now, and for getting their heart tissues examined, the Christian West. For exercising their right of rulership and playing their politics, Pakistan; but for keeping their money safe, and hidden from prying eyes, offshore accounts in the same Christian West. Now hoisted on the petard of those same offshore accounts, their hearts and nervous systems have come under mighty strain. And we are expected to show sympathy for their plight.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto may have been guilty of many things but adversity, and fall from grace, he faced with unrivalled courage. In power he was an autocrat and carried himself like one. But autocrats in power are like that. The difference in Bhutto was that in prison too his neck remained unbent. He carried himself like a Raja of Larkana, not begging for mercy and asking for no concessions.

The afternoon before his hanging, when he was shown his death warrant, he asked for shaving instruments. He hadn’t shaved for several days and as he told the jail superintendent, Yar Muhammad Duryana, he did not want to die looking like a maulvi. That is courage, not losing your aakar – what is the English word for it? Arrogance doesn’t quite convey the true sense – even in the face of death. And when they came to fetch him at two in the morning, ask anyone in the know, he was sound asleep. That is courage.

Nawaz Sharif spent time in Attock Fort and he was disconsolate, complaining about his mattress, the food, the conditions in his cell. And when it came he leapt at the opportunity of decamping to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis kept him in princely style but even in Saroor Palace our lord of the mandate suffered from depression.

If the Sharifs could deny that they had struck any agreement with Musharraf to renounce politics for ten years it is hardly surprising if Nawaz Sharif continues to deny any wrongdoing in the Panama scandal. But any sentient being is bound to ask: of what use power and of what use all your open and hidden wealth if after being exposed you have to cut such a sorry figure?

Nawaz Sharif may well ride out the storm and remain prime minister…but of what worth such hollow glory? Unless the Sharifs think, as I suspect they do, that resolute prayer absolves one of everything.

Email: bhagwal63@gmail.com