Arms-length politics

Musharraf has announced ‘grand alliance’ of 23 political parties what is now titled Pakistan Awami Itehad (PAI)

It is increasingly obvious that politics in Pakistan, at least at the level of party leadership, may be conducted from a distance, a kind of virtual-reality politics that has little or no connection with the grass roots in a physical sense. One political leader has conducted his party management from London by telephone for years, and now another absentee is entering the business of political moving and shaking. Former president Pervez Musharraf has announced a ‘grand alliance’ of 23 political parties that are to operate under what is now titled the Pakistan Awami Itehad (PAI). The new ‘alliance’ is to be headed by Mr Musharraf, Iqbal Dar is to be Secretary General and the whole kit and caboodle is to be headquartered in Islamabad.

With the courts anxious to see Mr Musharraf before them in the matter of treason it might be wondered how he might manage affairs from afar, but he has assured one and all that he is ready to face the charges against him, that he will return at the ‘appropriate time’ and that the accountability process should not in any way be affected by his arrival. He also declined any protocol in the event of his return to natal shores. Some may observe that Mr Musharraf occupies a parallel reality that has neither congruence nor contact with that which prevails day-to-day.

Alliances are flavour of the month as the churn prior to the 2018 election continues. Within the last week one forced marriage has already had one of those involved bolt for the horizon only to be hauled back by his mother. Whether the Musharraf effort is going to be any happier an alliance is a moot point and a forthcoming rally in December may be a litmus test; but none of the notified party’s has much of a vote bank to put in the pot and beyond their acolytes and devoted loyalists will be doing little to mobilise the lumpen proletariat who are by now frozen in the headlights of onrushing alliances. We watch attentively.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2017.

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