We really gotcha, didn’t we! Told you so. And you thought we were joking. That it was a game. That it was some kind of an extended prank that would wind up into humour all around even if with some heartbreak. Silly man! Limited wisdom! You did not take warnings seriously, and stuffed your head with bizarre notions of the ‘unthinkable’ never happening.
We told you to go away. You didn’t. We told you to behave and respect red lines. You misbehaved and saw red instead. We told you to shut up. You spewed venomous bravado of being ‘exploited’ in political rallies instead. We told you that this was a China shop with delicate goods of regional interests displayed all around and only the real owner is allowed to move freely. No other bull, not even a docile, neutered one is welcome here. You acted like a mad bull instead. We told you to depart and you went on a complaining spree trying to trash everything we did or said. Even when our handshake turned into a fist, you kept the same tone and attempted your old defiant trick that has been comprehensively defeated before. You pretended to be a strategist when you don’t understand the subject and have no expertise in it. You cannot even spell the word strategy much less match the well-honed skills of those who apply it daily.
So you had to be taught an abiding lesson – a lesson of lasting shame that would resonate for generations to come, yours as well as others’. You had your neck in the wringer a couple of times before but this time you weren’t going to pull out in time. And it was made sure that the wringer got your throat.
The first step (call it levelling of the ops field) was when Dr Tahirul Qadri and the great Khan got together and descended on Islamabad. The ground was tested, the resources were mobilised and a mock exercise of limited scale was launched to test the terrain.
The second phase was softening of the target to defang you, batter your image, and reduce your inflated ego to manageable size. You rolled back easily. You conceded, cringed, conceded even more. You coward. Then late in this phase you tried to act tough but were slapped down hard several times. After Dawn leaks you had no legs to stand on. You were cut at your knees, but and still sat on your throne looking all comfortable and at ease. You did not know that the encirclement was complete. That you had your back against a collapsing wall!
The last phase had to be dislodgement, but steady and proper. A surprising and sweet occurrence that the court proved to be your Waterloo. You thought you had enough rope to be in with a chance of survival. A hangman’s noose it was but you couldn’t see as it was smoke and mirrors all around you. You chased shadows, thinking they were doors to escape from. You clutched at straws, assuming they were solid pillars of the law to save you from sinking.
You thought the two dissenting notes were the end of voodoo jurisprudence, and due process of law was the cornerstone of justice that would surely follow. Once a fool, always a fool. Legal invention has no limits in our country. Grafting of one law onto the other and producing perfectly impure theories, to the embarrassment of Hans Kelsen, is a norm. In fact, to be honest, it is the grundnorm.
So you were made to worry about a mega decision on your mega corruption scandal narrative that came out of some truly great investigative work done by formidable journalists who daily receive research sitting in their studios. You thought it would be about London flats, about looted money, about offshore companies, about the Qatari letter etc. It wasn’t. This was a decoy set up to lure, capture and decapitate.
You were to be done on receivables from a dissolved company. Yes, receivables from a dissolved company that you never received! Sounds strange? Very strange? Well it is strange, but so what? It is too late for these Investopedia type of basic accounting questions. At any rate, who is going to dare raise this in front of us? You, who are already nailed and impaled? Or those who now know they will be nailed and impaled and therefore are trembling with fear?
A few thousand dirham’s salary that you did not withdraw was enough for you to be destroyed, to make you a headless wonder. That is what it is. That’s how we ordained it.
On a different note, it is shameful that you had a work permit visa on your passport. Truly shameful. You don’t get employed like this. You get employed like Raheel Sharif. Or if you want help go to the king of Saudi Arabia or the royals of the UAE (whose help we salute during this phase) and ask upfront like Pervez Musharraf has. That’s the way to do it. Money for Nothing, Cheques for Free! (Apologies to Mark Knopfler)
Now the way forward for you is the way down. We have hit your centre of gravity with remarkable precision and in a bloodless way. The previous method of shifting the loyalties of lawmakers here and there was messy; the new method is to simply get the law to do the job. This is the new template designed with utmost care and which is certain to deliver a hundred percent result every time it is tested. Why govern Egypt, as the good old British used to say, when you can govern the governors of Egypt!
Now you are on a slippery slope, where each step will hasten your fall downwards. You will make mistakes of a suicidal nature because this is in the nature of a retreating force. You want to bring Shehbaz Sharif in the centre because you cannot resist family pressure. By all means! Welcome to the hara-kiri zone. With Islamabad in turmoil, this move will upend Punjab as well. Yahoo! In Islamabad he will be like an Englishman in New York: alien administrative accent, personal eccentricities that the city does not tolerate and no sense of direction. Besides, he with his long list of first ladies and his sons and their business of chicken, eggs and milk – there is plenty of ammunition that will explode in their faces.
Wait till we open up the files on him! You were a hard nut to crack. He is easy pickings, a low-hanging fruit. So yes bring him here, destroy what is left of your crumbling empire and give Imran Khan another target in Islamabad to shoot and shout at and to laugh you out of politics.
From here onwards you are likely to make a spectacle of yourself and if that does not happen we have NAB cases to make a horrible example of you and your children. You are facing the end of your career. For you there is no place here. If you had kept your nose short, you fingers clasped in obedience and your head down, you would have survived. Perhaps. Not sure. Maybe yes. Maybe no. But not now.
This is Naya Pakistan without you. A Pakistan of champions: here Shaikh is a champion, Imran is a champion, the JIT is champion, the courts are champion, the media (not Geo) is a champion, we are champion. Everyone is a champion except you. No one will miss you – a loser among so many champions.
There is pure bliss, a celestial feeling of accomplishment all around. Pulling you down has been a great pleasure. Pakistan has been served well. Your number is 18. May this number grow in the years ahead as this is the only way to make the country strong. May we, as real representatives of the nation, continue to add to the trophies won in every domestic tournament we play. Ameen!
The writer is former executive editor of The News and a senior journalist with Geo TV.
Email: syedtalathussaingmail.com
Twitter: TalatHussain12