Can the prodigals come back?

There was a moment when the Chaudhrys of Gujrat were interested in rejoining Nawaz Sharif.

After the PPP was able to cobble together a ruling coalition in the aftermath of the 2008 election — and after the failed experiment of getting together with the PML-N under the 2006 Charter of democracy — there was a move by the well-wishers of the Muslim League to realign the Muslim League factions. It did not work. The wounds of the split caused by General Musharraf within the party were too fresh. But after President Asif Ali Zardari rode out the first crisis caused by the exit of the Nawaz League from a short-lived ‘friendly cooperation’, most pan-Leaguers wrung their hands at Nawaz Sharif’s lack of wisdom in spurning the PML-Q Chaudhrys.

The political instinct is clearly discernible: don’t let the straying faction back into the party, and if you must, ask them to ‘apologise to the nation first’. The only catch is that, this time Chaudhry Shujaat has said that Mr Sharif should also perhaps, say ‘sorry’. Of course, given how Mr Sharif conducted himself in recent years, one would say that he has decisively managed to move away from the perception that he was a product of the establishment and doesn’t really need to apologise.

General Musharraf had split both the mainstream parties after 1999. Now, after his ouster from the political scene, both the mother parties are determined to let the maverick factions die even if that means losing a few seats in the coming general election. There was a moment when the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, who had given birth to the Q-League, were interested in rejoining Nawaz Sharif. After all, both the families are right wing, are known for their traditional opposition to the PPP and are similar in their close links to an establishment unreconciled to a PPP perceived to be a ‘security risk’. Both were inclined to interface with the clerical parties and had acquiesced in the creation of non-state actors, which later became terrorists threatening the Pakistani state. The PML-N was known for its leadership of the infamous Islami Jamhoori Ittehad, created by the ISI to defeat the PPP in 1990; the PML-Q was the well known bedfellow of the clerical MMA created by Musharraf, through tweaking the 2002 elections.

To anyone still capable of mustering objectivity, the PML, united or split, represents the country’s political reaction to a national security state which is wedded to a right wing non-liberal ideology and nationalism. Political realism required in the democratic contest tends to obscure natural divisions that underlie most large parties. This is true of the Muslim League more than any other party in the country. It has been split and factionalised because without it, the national security state simply could not function. However, looked at closely, after the Junejo League bifurcated in the post-Zia period, a subsurface rivalry between two powerful families of Punjab was destined to percolate. Both the PML-Q and the PML-N are family-led parties. In the case where the party is not-family-led, it tends to wither on the bough — witness the fate of the three different units of the PML-Q that peeled off after the exit of Musharraf from the seat of power. The Chaudhrys represent a region of northern Punjab that has always struggled for recognition within the League under Nawaz Sharif. One was presided over by the ghost of Chaudhry Zahur Elahi, the head of the clan; the other was led from behind the scenes by Abba Ji, Nawaz Sharif’s father, who simply did not favour sharing power with the Gujrat strongmen. The Musharraf interregnum simply served to emphasise and enlarge the contradictions between the two families. Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi ruled Punjab on the basis of the contrast he could demonstrate to the voters between the governance of the Sharifs and the Chaudhrys. His predecessor in the chief minister’s office had been Shahbaz Sharif, recognised by many as an ideal autocrat. What galls the Sharifs today, as they listen to appeals for a PML-N and PML-Q merger is that, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, too, ended up doing a good job in Punjab as per the assessments of international organisations.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2012.