ISLAMABAD: Senior politician Makhdoom Javed Hashmi’s rejoining of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is now just a formality after his long-awaited meeting with ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The way Hashmi conducted himself over the past three years, defending democracy and dismissing unconstitutional interruptions, embellished his political career as a great, fearless democrat. He met the expelled premier on his invitation as Nawaz Sharif was impressed with his track record especially after storming out of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), exposing the sinister conspiracies and motives behind the 2014 sit-ins to demolish the democratic system. His desertion of the PTI at the peak of the sit-in and subsequent outbursts since 2014 when he left it, had brought him very close to the PML-N because he was saying what it was asserting throughout this protest. Even while leaving the PML-N and associating himself with the PTI in December 2011, Hashmi had openly declared that his heart was still with his previous party and he still accepts Nawaz Sharif as his leader. This obviously irked his new abode. The credit for bringing the ‘rebel’ back in the PML-N chiefly goes to Railway Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, who consistently remained in touch with him and kept persuading him to come back to his real party. However, hours before Hashmi had raced out of the PML-N in 2011, Saad Rafique and the members of his family had made a last ditch effort to change his decision but in vain. At the time, Begum Kulsoom, who was not actively taking part in politics, had also gone to his Lahore residence to convince him into giving up the new idea, but to no avail. Emotionally-charged scenes were witnessed when Hashmi had finally snubbed vociferous calls to remain in the PML-N. Hashmi could stay in the PTI only for three years. The actual hidden plans behind the sit-in of which he became aware with the passage of time disenchanted him with Imran Khan. Even during that protest, he had tried hard to transform the PTI chief into not becoming a tool in the hands of undemocratic powers, but his efforts proved to be too feeble to stop him from the disastrous trajectory. Being a democrat, Hashmi was finally left with no option but to cease his affiliation with the PTI. As he walked out of the PTI, he started blowing the whistle on the real agenda of the sit-in by spelling out graphic details, which included the attack on the Prime Minister House and other national installations located close to the D-Chowk. His famous claim was that Imran Khan had told him that the next Supreme Court chief justice will oust the Nawaz Sharif government. After saying good-bye to the PTI, Hashmi, as a principled politician, resigned from his National Assembly seat he had won on its ticket. He contested the by-election to it as independent, but lost to PTI contestant Malik Aamir Dogar. The PML-N had not fielded any candidate in the by-polls for Hashmi’s sake and had also not whole-heartedly support him. After leaving the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulba, the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Hashmi had joined the PML-N and remained with him steadfast for several years. The only time he departed from it was in 2011 when he switched to the PTI. He was so much trusted leader of the PML-N that when Nawaz Sharif and other members of his family went into exile on December 10, 2000 during Pervez Musharraf’s era, he was made chief of the party and Raja Zafarul Haq was appointed its chairman. In Sharifs’ absence from Pakistan, he ran the party in the dictatorial rule. In 2003, Hashmi was charged with a trumped up treason case and sentenced to seven-year rigorous imprisonment. Later the Lahore High Court acquitted him in June 2010 saying that no concrete evidence or witnesses were available to suggest his involvement in any act of treason. He was released on bail in 2007 after serving 3 years and 9 months in prison. Before being accused of this offence, Hashmi had said that he had received information from “credible sources” that a case had been prepared against him for distributing a letter that, he claimed, had been written by Musharraf establishment. While referring to that letter, he had stated that it was not one but he had been receiving many similar communications for the past many months. The then Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, had described the alleged letter as fake. Hashmi had said he was ready to go to jail and had already packed up his luggage. “I would not bow before a military dictator. I am not against the army as an institution but against those who had made the military controversial.” While leaving the PML-N, he had stated that the relationship between him and Nawaz Sharif continued to deteriorate, “I was shunned by him and he stopped asking me for anything on anything. I kept asking till the very last minute why I was moved into a corner. I am not happy to leave the party, and if they are teary eyed about it, so am I. The decision to switch to PTI is neither impulsive, nor emotional as I kept my emotions aside and thought about it for almost 18 months, consulting other members of the party and my constituency over it before deciding.”
