The year of #ThankYouRaheelSharif

December 16 is a traumatic day for Pakistan. Two heart-wrenching events — 43 years apart — happened on this very date, and shall keep resonating in our collective conscience for a very long time.

Three days from now, this black date will unfold like a recurring nightmare and haunt us back to the sins of the past. But this blood-soaked mark on our calendar will also point to the deep fault lines that persist within the governance structure of Pakistan.



And nothing defines these faultlines more than the billboard slogan and Twitter hashtag #ThankYouRaheelSharif. A year on from the tragedy of Army Public School (APS) Peshawar, and a year prior to his scheduled retirement, is General Sharif symbolising the Pakistani moment more than his civilian namesake?

Therein lies the predicament: what is the Pakistani moment right now? Is it the electoral stability so elusive in the past? Is it the satisfaction of democratic continuity unwrapping itself through another five-year term? Is it the unchallenged supremacy of the PML-N in Punjab and of the MQM in Karachi and the PPP in Sindh established by the local government elections? Is it the train-wreck in slow motion known as the PTI? Or is the Pakistani moment the gradual decimation of the terror networks across the country?

The answer lies somewhere between December 16, 2014 and December 16, 2015 — one digit separating a year of tumult, resolve and endless possibilities. But the answer is also meshed into the moment that has catapulted the two Sharifs onto dizzying heights of power and popularity.



Is General Sharif the most resolute army chief we have seen for a while? Here is a soldier who carries with him a legacy that injects steroid-like credibility into him. Added to this advantage is a series of decisions that have radically changed the Pakistani landscape within a year. The impression one gets is of a man who broods less and does more. Here, there and everywhere, the general clearly is a man of action, and wants to be seen as such. The blitzkrieg media publicity surrounding him has one glaring — and clearly deliberate — element: he is never heard speaking. In hours and hours of video coverage, the general is hardly ever heard. No speeches, no interviews, no sound bytes — nothing. His actions are supposed to speak louder than his words. If that be the logic, it seems to be working. The general is seen as a larger-than-life figure driving the country across roadblocks, hurdles and hidden traps.



Is he the man we need?



Is Prime Minister Sharif the most powerful civilian leader we have seen for a while? As he scans the political landscape, he sees nothing except an army of midgets ready to battle him. With one sweep of his hand, he vanquishes them and moves on. He is the undisputed champion of the electoral ring; the man who cannot be defeated. The local government elections have relegated the PPP and the PTI to their respective provinces, while the other parties — whatever alliance they form — are nothing more to the PML-N than helpful allies or annoying irritants. Sharif today is the lord master of Punjab and Pakistan. In fact, there is nothing that suggests that he faces any serious threat in the coming years. No civilian in Pakistan has ever enjoyed this type of dominance and supremacy.

Is he the man we need?

Power abhors duality, but this one year has witnessed an uneasy duality persist between the two Sharifs. Left to his own, the prime minister was not willing to declare war on the terrorists. Left to his own, he would have led us into a higher level of dithering, shuffling and vacillating. Left to his own, he would have failed to secure us against this existentialist threat.

But what if some fairy dust had been sprinkled on him, and he had overnight transformed into a wartime leader ready to take on the monster with all his might? And in this scenario, what if he was burdened by an army chief who did not want to go all out against the terrorists? Would the prime minister’s resolve and determination have gotten him — and us — anywhere? Most likely, he would have thundered and bellowed, but the policy would have remained stagnant in the absence of the will of the army chief.



Moral of the story: General Raheel Sharif’s success is embodied both in his person and his office. This infers that the civilian Sharif can only become a resolute wartime leader if he has the army chief completely agreeing with him. The fault line is right here for all to see.

But wait. This may be true for Operation Zarb-e-Azb, but does it also hold equally true for the mess in Karachi? If the prime minister really truly sincerely wanted to clean up Karachi without the help of the army chief, could he? The Rangers report to the interior minister who reports to the prime minister. Could Nawaz Sharif then, had he wanted to, play the role in Karachi that Raheel Sharif is playing? Could Nawaz Sharif have gone after china cutting, terror funding and politically-garbed target killers? Would he have steamrolled all yelping from opposition parties and slammed into the Karachi mafia like an 18-wheeler truck?

If the answer is in the negative, why is it so? Does he not recognise the moment?



The Pakistani moment is, in fact, not a moment at all; it is a slow process of fulfilling our potential. But doing so means identifying big-ticket critical issues and tackling them head on. These big issues stare us in the face: security, reform, merit, rule of law, education, economy and an inclusive political system designed to bring the best and the brightest to the top. In such a process, there is no space for political expediency and mutually convenient compromises. General Sharif took the big-ticket issue of security by the horns, and slew the monster. He grabbed the moment and did what the moment required him to do. His responsibility ends there.

If the civilian Sharif can muster up similar resolve to take on the other big-ticket issues, he would become the man we need. There is no doubt that 2015 was the year of #ThankYouRaheelSharif. But if Pakistan has to move forward, the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 should resonate with slogans of #ThankYouNawazSharif.

Is that asking for, and expecting, too much?

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2015.

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