Fixing politics

Away from the glare of publicity and in near total silence, fundamental changes are taking place in the role and profile of the country’s establishment in national affairs. From intrusive manipulation to a straight and narrow focus on professional matters, the change is fairly visible.

Barely few months in office, Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa’s team has already done considerable repair and closure work on badly broken projects initiated earlier, which had started to drain the army’s resources, time and energies without producing any of the promised results.

Nothing illustrates this point better than the release of Dr Asim from jail on bail. The army high command has nothing to do with it – and that is a real change. The message is clear: we are not in the business of fixing politics nor will we continue projects that were aimed at fixing politics.

Dr Asim’s bail is perfectly legal and preconditioned with his availability in the country to face charges of corruption. However, the arrest of Dr Asim, Asif Ali Zardari’s closest confidant, was a crucial factor in the vain attempt to apply a minus-one formula on the PPP. His ordeal was metaphor for the deep estrangement Zardari had caused with the army high command through statements that foolishly derided the generals in a threatening language.

Also, Zardari looked like a perfect candidate to focus media limelight on the grand idea of state institutions bent upon creating a new Pakistan – a highly populist stunt. Asim was Zardari’s doorman and Zardari controlled the PPP with his little finger. Put him (Asim) in the soup and you may have Zardari land in so much trouble that he will have no time to manipulate national politics using his clout.

Thus began Asim’s two-year journey of pain and humiliation. First, he was made to look like a keystone of the nexus of terror and corruption. For months, this allegation rolled all over the media as pundits sat and issued stern judgements about this man’s crime against the noble humanity that resides in this land of the pure. But then weeks after weeks passed and nothing, not a shred of evidence, could be brought before the courts of law. Then started the second phase: the sultan of mega corruption phase. Rs462 billion worth of corruption cases were heaped over his head along with the usual media character assassination that has become a necessary tool to cloak vile goals, bad planning and absence of evidence.

In a few meetings at the highest level the powers that be had to openly admit that they did not have any evidence against Asim on the terrorism front and therefore it was in the fitness of things if he could be sent to NAB for probe.

What happened afterwards is a story told many times. Basically, nothing happened. And in the end Asim became a manipulated legal system’s worst nightmare: he could neither be proven guilty and nor released because this would have caused so much loss of face for those who had primed everybody to believe that the man was a hardened criminal.

In the meanwhile, the sideshow of Ayyan Ali moving up and down on the ramp of local courts continued. In custody, on trial, on temporary bail, at the airport, the woman was the female version of the move to tackle Zardari’s alleged network of shady deals. That she was living a dream (unlike Asim) was totally lost on those handling her case. An entertainment person (not just a woman) can afford a certain level of trouble if the gain is massive publicity. But that did not justify the ping pong state institutions played with her case. Clearly, she was a meant to be a sword on the head of Asif Ali Zardari.

The Zardari camp did face temporary disruption. The former president did leave the country. His right-hand men and women also abandoned the country momentarily and took refuge in the soothing environs of Dubai or other holiday destinations.

Came forward Bilawal Bhutto for his fifteen minutes of fame and glory. There was much self-praise in powerful quarters over how they had caused a ‘generational shift’ in the PPP. Well done, said everybody to the boss. Some even spoke of the end of the Zardari era and how much space would be available for ‘new political forces’ to emerge.

But even in those delusional moments of praise-be-to-the chief, the dark and worst kept secret was well known to everyone: there was no befitting legal way to use Dr Asim and Ayyan Ali to get to Zardari, and more important, what will we do when and if we get to Zardari. Bring him to the courts again? Hang him? Drag him around like we are dragging Asim and Ayyan? No clarity of purpose. No real planning. No aim in sight. Only publicity, hype and praise to the chief.

It was only a matter of time that this insane project of getting rid of Zardari through Asim and Ayyan would run out of steam – or even interest. Both happened at the same time. As soon as the new military leadership came to power and saw the mess in the political room of Sindh, it was a foregone conclusion that this matter had to be settled by simply closing down the project.

It is politically convenient for the opposition to lay into Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan (who deserves much criticism on other counts) and the present government (which equally deserves to get the rough end of the criticism stick on a range of issues) for seemingly striking a deal with Zardari and allowing him the space that was denied to him in the last many years.

In fact, on the face of it, Asim’s release appears to be a real ‘muk-muka’ (under the table deal) between the PPP and the PML-N this close to the announcement of the Panama leaks verdict (the suspense is no longer killing me). But you only need to read newspapers of the days when Asim found himself on the wrong side of national politics to know that this had nothing to do with the federal government’s policy. The prime minister and the interior minister and all the ministers who in different ways defended the treatment of Asim were only responding to the fait accompli handed to them as part of the ‘fix Zardari’ project.

Now, two years later, when the obvious has happened, Asif Ali Zardari is not just back with a bang but also more empowered. And this is not because he is a philosopher king and dean of all manipulative wisdom but because he heads a party that has votes – more votes or less is a separate issue, but votes nonetheless. The party has deep roots in Sindh and has presence across the country. It has shown real capacity to win elections repeatedly. Its leaders (good or bad or ugly) cannot be thrown out through silly and thoughtless manoeuvres such as the one that was attempted and now is over with the release of Asim. We may not like what the present political scene offers us. We may believe that there is a short cut available to starting a new Pakistan, but what we wish and what we think has nothing to do with realities.

The system can only be cleansed through a painfully long process of reform during which we will have to put up with thugs, scoundrels and even outright criminals. Any effort other than this is bound to fail. The lesson of our own history is that whenever an attempt is made to disrupt the natural process of political cleansing it has ended so badly that the process had to be started all over again. That’s exactly what has happened with this episode.

The ‘fix Zardari’ project is over. Zardari is back and we are back to scratch. The unwise attempt to pursue him out of the political power arena may have prolonged his stay by a few additional years.

The writer is former executive editor of The News and a senior journalist with Geo TV.

Email: syedtalathussain@gmail.com

Twitter: @TalatHussain12