Game theory

Player one: Imran Khan is a ‘faith traveller’. Imran Khan believes that destiny will make him the PM. Imran Khan has no strategy to organise his party. Imran Khan has no political strategy to win general election. Imran Khan thinks he is ‘too blessed to be stressed’.

Player two: Asif Ali Zardari is a schemer-dreamer. “Well, the schemer’s world is dizzy/By the look of things, he’s busy/Lighting candles at both ends/Playing king with all his friends/And his big plans for the future/Lay on someone else’s shoulders/But he never tells them so/Well, he don’t want them to know”.

Player three: Nawaz Sharif is a politician – a politician par excellence. Nawaz Sharif is talking about a ‘revolution’ and singing “I support the left, though I’m leaning, leaning to the right/But I’m not there when it’s coming to a fight”. Nawaz Sharif is the first ‘revolutionary’ in the history of revolutions who lives in a palace spread over 25,000 kanals. Nawaz Sharif has no legal plan. But Nawaz Sharif has a political plan and a political strategy. Nawaz Sharif is strategising to overturn legal disqualifications in the ‘court of law’ through the ‘court of public opinion’. Nawaz Sharif thinks politics can reverse convictions.

Nawaz Sharif has a potent election strategy: Shahbaz Sharif’s development projects in tandem with Nawaz Sharif’s defiance. Who can beat that? Succession within the party is settled. The PML-N is the largest party in the Senate. And the party is intact. Nawaz Sharif’s well-oiled ‘political machine’ is now gearing up to win the general elections.

Player 2: Asif Ali Zardari thinks he has a PhD in politics. Here’s the record: the PPP under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto used to bag 60 percent of the total number of votes. The PPP under Benazir Bhutto used to bag nearly 40 percent of the number of votes polled. And the PPP under Asif Ali Zardari is down to bagging 15 percent of all votes. What a fall from 60 percent to 15 percent in a mere 36 years. So much for the PhD.

But Asif Ali Zardari is a schemer-dreamer. Asif Ali Zardari brought down the government in Balochistan. Asif Ali Zardari managed to pull two senators out of the KP Assembly where the PPP has a total of six MPAs (roughly 32 MPAs required for two senators). Asif Ali Zardari managed to buy at least 14 MQM MPAs. “Scheming how to rule the waves/Trader spied a virgin plain/And named it for velvet robes”. The total outlay in KP is over Rs1 billion.

Player one: According to Imran Khan: “The life I have/Is the life I’ve always wanted/And I’m on the go! Here I’m finally on the road/On the road! And I wanna put my faith in you babe”.

Players four and five: The ‘guns and the pens’; black boots and black robes. On February 1, the Maldives Supreme Court ordered the release of imprisoned opposition politicians. President Abdulla refused to implement the Supreme Court’s orders. On February 5, President Abdulla ordered Major-General Shivam, the chief of the Defence Force (total personnel: 5,000), to arrest the judges of the Supreme Court. At that point in time, the balance of power was in the hands of Major-General Shivam, the president or the Supreme Court. The Maldives National Defence Force stormed the Supreme Court and arrested the judges. The president won.

Conclusion: “You can’t outrun the long arm of the law/You can hide out for a while/But you can’t outrun the long arm of the law.../The court was called to order/The judge just looked right through him/I know you hid out for a while/But you can’t outrun the long arm of the law”.

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad.

Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com

Twitter: @saleemfarrukh