Spare us the hypocrisy

It is rare that we find ourselves in support of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, but in the matter of his criticism of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) protesting the decision to allow ex-president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf to travel abroad — we do. The PPP in its time in office had a long and dishonourable record of kow-towing to Mr Musharraf, indeed supporting him on several issues when it suited its political purposes — the National Reconciliation Ordinance of 2007 (NRO) comes specifically to mind. It was the NRO that ‘facilitated’ the return of Benazir Bhutto — which with a dreadful irony also led to her death. In this latter tragic circumstance, the PPP was less than helpful when it came to pursuing the investigation into the death of Benazir Bhutto; so much so that it was difficult to escape the conclusion that it was keen to protect then-president Musharraf from anything like close investigation.

Political parties tend to have highly selective memories when it comes to their own faults and misdeeds, with both the PML-N and the PPP having far from perfect recall in this matter. At least twice the PML-N had opposed court decisions reversing the refusal to allow him to travel, but the Supreme Court finally ruled in favour of removing his name from the Exit Control List and the PML-N chose to comply. While the decision may have its demerits, for the PPP now to cry ‘foul’ and call for street protests is, as the interior minister has said, nothing short of rank hypocrisy given its past positional history regarding Mr Musharraf. It smacks of a political party not so much waving as drowning, and that too in a sea of its own self-inflicted misfortunes. No favours are being done, no votes garnered and the PPP continues a seemingly inexorable slide into national irrelevance. Many feel that the Musharraf exit is justice denied, and it is difficult to refute this belief. However, for the PPP to now create a huge ruckus over the matter makes apparent its duplicity. One can only wish that the party had expended the same level of energy in bringing the former dictator to justice while it was in power that it is now showing in protesting the government’s decision to let him travel abroad.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2016.

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