Neither forgotten nor forgiven easily

Nawaz Sharif is fishing for sympathies; however that are hard to come by due to his apathetic attitude towards other while he was in power. He is desperately fighting for his political survival but prospects of his success seem slim. His alacrity to confront state institutions is not going to help him either. It was Francis Bacon that once rightfully wrote, “A lame man who takes the right path outstrips the runner who takes the wrong path”. The former prime minister’s impetuousness may precipitate his tragic political redundancy. He should take a step back and consider his future political strategy keeping in view the ground realities. Would his current confrontational stance be wise or would a tactical retreat serve him better?

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari do not see any danger to the democracy and therefore have declined to bail him out as a resultant beneficiary. He is embattled in the political crisis mainly of his own making. His then interior minister targeted the PPP and its leadership presumably on the concurrence of the then prime minister or of the quarters to spoil the broth. Nawaz Sharif even cancelled his scheduled meeting with the co-chairman who wanted to express his condolence and also possibly apprise him to stop victimisation of the PPP because that would not bode well for him and the country in the final analysis. But, he was either in mood of absolute power or scared from that put his thinking off balance caring less of those who helped him in salvaging his government resultantly while saving democracy. He has to pay the price of his poor judgments, the inevitability is written in stone. In politics, mistakes are neither forgotten nor forgiven easily.

Inaccurate reading of the currents and under-currents of political dynamics has undoubtedly pushed the PML-N leadership to the blind alley and this is exactly the case with Nawaz Sharif. He was advised by the combined opposition to settle the Panama issue at the parliamentary forum as per the Terms of Reference (TORs) framed by the opposition under the able supervision of Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan. But he flatly refused only to ask for the humiliation in the form of disqualification for the indefinite period. He was consistently urged by the Opposition Leader Syed Khursheed Shah to tackle the Panama Papers in the Parliament that would strengthen the Parliament and democracy without creating many ripples in the country’s politics. He did not move.

He gave no importance to the Parliament and lived up to his notoriety of ignoring it. He used to take all important decisions of national importance unilaterally over and above the Parliament. Recent study of Pildat has discounted the leadership of Nawaz Sharif and his party for not giving due importance to the Parliament thus undermining the functioning democracy of the country. How embarrassing for him and for the Parliament that he only attended the sessions twice during four years of his rule. He should have given more than due importance to the Parliament because it saved his government from being pulled down by the proponents of sit-in politics. But, ironically, he forgot it only to face the lamentable consequences.

Undoubtedly, PPP’s democratic credentials are impeccable. These are really the great source of solace for the people of Pakistan who are convinced that the party, its leadership and workers will never let the sun go down on the democratic dispensation no matter what. These are great feelings among the people swaying right across the country sufficient to keep their morale high to scuttle the insidious and toxic designs of the anti-democratic forces those are compulsively destined of shooting from the hips to wrest the people’s right to rule. The forces of authoritarianism and extremism, however, cannot be underestimated in the face of their perfidious pursuits of creeping in the political system without being noticed. These forces must be resisted and exposed to pre-empt their infliction.

Pakistan People’s Party arduous struggle throughout is struggle for the restoration and consolidation of democracy in Pakistan. It is bound to succeed because the trend is universal and indeed represents the fulfillment of human aspirations. It is irreversible too no matter the boulders are lying across the trajectory. PPP politics is politics of empowerment of the people and is quite in accord with the aspirations of the people. The overwhelming majority of the country’s populace is passionately in favour of democracy according to number of surveys conducted by credible organisations. It may be remembered their aspirations are not misplaced in context of their compatibility with genesis of Pakistan movement which is essentially a democratic movement.

PPP enjoys the singular distinction of coming to power through the power of vote. No other political party on the political canvass has this distinction because they had used the unconstitutional means as cat paw to make their entry in the corridors of power. The parallel of the PPP’s unblemished track record in the face of ferocious military dictators is difficult to find even in those countries of the world that had more or less the similar tyrannical rule. The other political parties and its leadership in this country rather opted for caving in to brute forces instead of saying truth in the face of despots. The ‘King’s Party’ by General Musharraf was mainly consisted of such cowardice. Unfortunately, the political history is filled with such instances when the leadership preferred parochial survival over the assiduous fighting for the rights of the people. The PML-N leaders, in the past, preferred exile rather than bearing the rigors of fighting for the rights of the people. They, heart-wrenchingly, left their party and the people at the mercy of the dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, to suffer his curdling brutalities during the next ten years. Their nightmare came to an end as Mohtarma Shaheed succeeded in restoring democracy in the country after the martyrdom.

Chairman Bilawal Bhutto and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, living up to the ideology of the party and the much cherished legacy of two great Bhuttos, have reiterated their unflinching commitment to people’s rule implying that for them democracy is zero-sum game without an iota of second thought. The party leadership had played an historic role for democracy in the aftermaths of the tragic assassination of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. The sentiments of avenging the assassination of their beloved leader were running exceptionally high among the people and the situation could have taken disastrous turn for the country if the PPP leadership had been carried away too. But, Asif Ali Zardari’s slogan, Pakistan Khappay’ at the time turned the tide and the country was saved from plumping into deeper crisis beyond control. He also persuaded the other major political parties not to boycott the forthcoming elections and those must be held as per schedule to restore democracy in Pakistan. It was a stroke of great statesmanship on the part of Asif Ali Zardari because the country started returning to normalcy afterwards.

The other grave danger to democracy was posed by the apologists of sit-in politics soon after the peaceful transfer of power from the PPP government to the PML-N government in accordance with the Constitution signifying best democratic practices, first time in the country’s political history. But, the sit-in politics, with the tacit support of the retired and serving generals at that time, as reported in media, was scripted to pull down the legitimate government to bring change over and above the Constitution by installing the government led by PTI. It was sheer highhandedness and intimidation that was not acceptable to the PPP in particular because it could not imagine letting the democratic gains go waste like that. Other pro-democratic parties also deciphered the situation in the same manners. The PPP stood up and took the strategic decision to oppose the PTI and its ilk determined to destroy democratic edifice. PPP’s rallying point of no political change contrary to the constitution caught the imagination of other political parties as well making it the formidable force to defeat the opponents. The joint session of the Parliament took the thunder out of sit-in politics, and its proponents became desperate for the face saving exit that was provided by Peshawar carnage at Army Public School. Dr Tahirul Qadri had already left the venue along with his captive audiences leaving the PTI high and dry. Democracy remained on track and the people took the sigh of relief.

Now, the wounded and humiliated Nawaz Sharif seemed to have lost sense of proportion, and has launched mass protest against the judiciary that is bound to push him in a tight corner. His protest smacks of his statements before the Supreme Court decision declaring unequivocally to accept it no matter it was for or against. His protests in the aftermath of the apex court judgment are beyond comprehension. Also, the confrontation with judiciary may push the country close to chaos with perils of wrapping up the whole system. The judgment may be left to be judged by the history.

His defiance amounts to defiance of the ultimate authority that may land him in contempt proceedings. Let us hope and pray that better sense will prevail convincing him to change his political strategy with the stroke of equanimity and leadership because stakes are high. Digging in heels on the wrong side of the equation is not going to help him in the slippery slope.

(The writer is Head of PPP Media Cell)

muhammadshaheedi@yahoo.com