We, as a nation, have generally been hiding from history. This may be a subterfuge to avoid or ease the pain of the numerous disasters and upheavals of our existence. But we pretend to be making history all the time. Something unusual or exceptional happens and there are always some people who proclaim it to be a moment of history.
This week, we are contending with two such events and both have inspired a lot of excitement and a cascade of media headlines. A serving prime minister has appeared before a joint investigation team – JIT – composed of officials of his own administration. In the context of how the entire episode is playing out, this is surely a precedent. That other things have happened to other prime ministers is something else.
And we are playing the final of the Champions Trophy, for the first time. Technically, anything that happens for the first time makes history. Major sports tournament do become an extension of a nation’s pride, bring people together and provide emotional catharsis of a kind. Besides, this final we are playing with India.
And playing the final of the Champions Trophy with or, more meaningfully, against India is beyond doubt the stuff that history is made of. Because the match is to be played today at The Oval in London, nothing else is expected to distract the attention of the people, including in India, at this time. For a while, politics will take the back seat. This will be an opportunity for some to give a rest to their vocal chords.
This also means that I should mainly concentrate on cricket and on the mythical dimensions of a contest between Pakistan and India. Sadly, I am not equipped to do that. I love the game and get emotional about it. But I do not comprehend its intricacies and have no memory for past records and juicy titbits. Let me also confess that I envy the literary expression of some sports writers. Their passion for cricket is an affirmation of the elegance of the game. It is supposed to represent certain high values.
Globally, the most popular spectator sport is football. Cricket is associated with the British Empire. What they were playing on the playing fields of Eton, before winning the battle of Waterloo, was most likely cricket. There was hockey in the past but for long cricket has been our national game. Its idiom has enriched political jargon and everyday conversation.
One measure of this cricket-mania is the political prominence of Imran Khan, the most charismatic player of the game who led our team to World Cup glory in 1992. It is interesting that in his keynote address at the KLF’s London edition, writer Mohammad Hanif made the cryptic statement that in our 70 years of independence, we won a World Cup and lost half the country. By the way, East Pakistan did not figure in our cricket history and the Bangladesh team is now able to reach the semi-finals of the Champions’ Trophy.
Knowing that the national mood now is almost insanely dominated by cricket talk and cricket thoughts, I find it difficult to work out a focus that also reflects the state of the political game that is apparently moving into its final phase. The Sharif family’s encounter with the JIT has become a thriller, with so much happening in the shadows.
The first headline in this newspaper on Friday was: “Puppet games have come to an end: PM”. This was a reference to the written statement Nawaz Sharif read after his three-hour appearance before the JIT. There has been some mystification about the message that he wanted to get across. Was there any hint in his show of defiance of what had transpired during a session that is supposed to have made history?
In any case, he said that “we will not let the wheel of history turn in the reverse direction. The days of games behind the scenes are now over”. He made his remarks somewhat ominous by adding: “I want to say a lot more and I will say more in the days to come”. Significantly, the statement that the prime minister read, without lapsing into any asides or taking questions, had to be ready before he faced the JIT.
It is, thus, fair to assume that the PML-N has opted for an aggressive stance vis-à-vis the ongoing probe into Sharif family’s foreign assets in the context of the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Panama Papers’ case. Already, the JIT and the government have traded allegations. Naturally, the political opposition has joined the fray and the temperature has risen to a much higher level after the prime minister faced the JIT on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the Election Commission of Pakistan released statements of assets and liabilities of the legislators. What made headlines was the expected revelation that Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan are both billionaires, though Nawaz Sharif is ahead. Both of them belong to the same club in other ways, too. In spite of the bitter animosity that has polarised the nation, both belong to the ruling elite, with many of its prominent members walking in an out of the leading political parties.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is facing grave challenges, mainly in the domain of its foreign policy. Tensions with India are at a high pitch – which gives an additional edge to today’s final. According to media reports, a US drone strike in Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killed a Haqqani Network militant on Monday night. Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa called it ‘counterproductive’.
On the domestic front, there is mounting evidence of disarray and discontent. This has been the budget season and there has been an onslaught of statistics that tend to camouflage the economic reality that the common people have to live with. Beyond economics, it is social injustice that has deprived people of their human dignity.
As for CPEC, I am tempted to quote two sentences from a New York Times report published last month: “China is moving so fast and thinking so big that it is willing to make short-term missteps for what it calculates to be long-term gains. Even financially dubious projects in corruption-ridden countries like Pakistan and Kenya make sense for military and diplomatic reasons”.
Yes, we have to put all this aside and attend to the match. Its outcome will have an effect, momentarily, on people’s mood and morale. In any case, it is going to be an explosion.
The writer is a senior journalist.
Email: ghazi_salahuddinhotmail.com