Sightings before Eid

Pakistan has made a miserable start in its World Cup campaign. The manner in which the West Indians made mincemeat of our cricketers was heartbreaking. And that has a bearing on the nation’s frame of mind.

We know that this is a long tournament and our team, with its reputation for unpredictability, can bounce back. But the shock suffered on Friday was palpable. Spectator sport has a way of bringing the entire nation together and a major victory or a disgraceful defeat can have political consequences.

Cricket has become our national sport and the current World Cup has acquired a special significance because the charisma of the present prime minister – Imran Khan – is rooted in that inspiring World Cup victory way back in 1992. It remains a point of reference even in our political discourse. Imran Khan’s leadership on the playing field had certainly made the difference.

Now, Sarfraz does not seem to possess that kind of allure and he may falter on the playing field in the same manner that Imran is faltering in the political arena. The difference, however, is that a defeat in the match that Imran is now playing would have more tangible and drastic consequences. In the game of politics, the destiny of our people remains at stake.

Since our national and political affairs are in a state of chaos and desperation, cricket was expected to provide some relief. The build-up is extraordinary, also fuelled by commercial exploitation of the occasion. So much so that cricket headlines push more significant national developments aside in television’s news bulletins. They have to talk about it endlessly.

However, Friday’s debacle was in complete harmony with our national political drift. A day before the encounter with the West Indies, skipper Sarfraz Ahmed, having lost the past ten One-day Internationals, sought inspiration from our Champions Trophy win “because then also we were losing and then lifted ourselves at the right time”.

Incidentally, Imran’s supporters, the ones who are still there, are hoping for a similar turn of events. On the playing field, he had the reputation of leading from the front. He radiated courage and confidence. This was his ticket to political stardom. Alas, his performance in power is not unlike that of our cricket team at Trent Bridge. While our players still have a lot of room to make amends, Imran does not appear to have that margin to recover.

Indeed, some perceptive observers are beginning to wonder if he is still in charge. This impression was fostered by the dramatic change in his economic team and the departure of, in a way, his opening batsman. It would be difficult for his ardent supporters to stomach the appointment of some other ministers, such as Firdaus Ashiq Awan.

Imran’s position on the table of authority has become more dubious with his absence from the centre of the stage at a time when some very crucial developments are taking place. In fact, this week’s rise in the tempo of political developments has raised many disturbing questions about the future of democracy in this country.

On the face of it, Imran and his party are unable to comprehend the evolving situation and are investing their efforts in a dangerous enterprise. One piece of evidence is the fiery speech that Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan delivered in a raucous session of the National Assembly on Friday. His task was to argue that the PTM supported MNAs, Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir should be expelled from the august House for their alleged involvement in ‘anti-state’ activities.

Now, this entire episode surrounding a violent incident at a military check post in the tribal district of North Waziristan is becoming a controversy and its implications are not easy to delineate. In the absence of any independent media coverage of the incident, there is a lot that is yet to be explained. In the immediate context, it is remarkable that the prime minister has not spoken about the incident in which so many lives were lost.

It should be noted that the political stature of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was reinforced this week by the manner in which he articulated his views on the North Waziristan incident and on the police action against the leaders and workers of his party on the occasion of his visit to an accountability court in Islamabad. A message was also conveyed by the joint appearance of the PML-N and PPP leaders in a press briefing outside the National Assembly.

Perhaps the most momentous development this week is the reference filed by the government before the Supreme Judicial Council against Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Karim Khan Agha. Prompted by the circumstances in which the decision was leaked to the media, Justice Isa wrote a letter to President Arif Alvi in which he stated that “selective leaks amount to character assassination, jeopardise my right to due process and fair trial and undermine the institution of judiciary”.

Irrespective of the charges that relate to assets not declared, this move at this time has substantially raised the political temperature. There are audible intimations of another lawyers’ movement supported by the opposition parties. Nawaz Sharif has directed his party to forcefully counter the ‘attack’ on judiciary and lawyers’ organisations are formulating a strategy to deal with this issue.

Another news that is bound to reverberate in the minds of the people is that, in the words of the ISPR statement “General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) endorsed punishment to two army and one civil officer on the charges of espionage / leakage of sensitive information to foreign agencies prejudicial to national security”.

Retired Brig Raja Rizwan and Dr Wasim Akram were awarded the death sentence and retired Lt-Gen Javed Iqbal was awarded 14-year rigorous imprisonment.

We are about to begin the week-long Eid holidays. This should be a welcome interlude to allow the harassed citizens to relax in the company of their families and friends. We should expect this diversion to be therapeutic in some ways, for emotional and even psychiatric reasons. After these holidays, of course, the main opposition parties have promised to launch a protest movement against the government of Imran Khan.

But the rumblings we have felt this week indicate that a soft launching of the protest has already taken place. On Thursday, when we lost in cricket in Nottingham, the National Assembly session in Islamabad was completely rowdy and they almost came to blows. And, if you have noticed, I have not mentioned the economy, the rising prices and the annual budget that is waiting in the wings.

The writer is a senior journalist.

Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com