Swan song of a dispirited politician

Back benchers of almost every political party in the National Assembly kept endorsing Javed Hashmi’s speech.

Back benchers of almost every political party represented in the National Assembly kept endorsing Javed Hashmi’s blunt speech with spirited desk thumping. Often it became too obvious that he was telling things which most of them had been discussing in whispers but never dared to say it out loud before their respective leaders.

Sitting in the gallery, however, one mostly felt like he was listening to the swan song of a politician who had lost hope. Doubly painful was his shaky and at times mumbling voice.

Hashmi has spoken after spending a long time convalescing from a serious illness. Most of his friends strongly believe that matters boiling in his heart and mind since the return of this assembly in 2008, eventually resulted in a serious brain hemorrhage in mid-2010.

He was not made the PML-N’s parliamentary leader despite spending most of the Musharraf era behind bars. As if that were not enough, he must have been feeling doubly sidelined by the cabal of decision-makers surrounding Nawaz Sharif. His subdued behaviour and diplomatic silence over these matters surprised everyone who knew him intimately.

For a few minutes though, he did appear to be struggling to focus on the ‘big picture’, instead of opening up his heart. Behaving like a wise man with experience, he tried to make his colleagues realise that many regional and linguistic pockets in our country were pining for autonomy.

This parliament, he insisted, should avert an imminent implosion by conceding that the creation of a Hazara province and restoration of the provincial status of the erstwhile Bahawalpur state would not harm the national integrity. There was also no harm to actively ponder over the demand for a Seraiki province as well, he said.

Our population, he insisted, had grown stupendously. “Only an insane mind will dream of controlling it via administrative machinery and methods we inherited from the British (colonialists).”

Hashmi might have betrayed his real self while sticking to speaking in “statesmanlike” manner.

Quickly, he conveyed the message that the current political leadership, with apparently no exceptions, continued to behave as if they were oblivious to ground realities, stoking anger amongst the masses. “It is time,” he attempted to shout: “that our political leaders speak the truth and genuinely seek forgiveness for their acts of omission and commission.”

As if to set an example, he woefully confessed that his joining the military government during the Zia regime as a minister in 1978, although briefly, “was the biggest mistake of my life. I would regret it until my death”.

After this, he started berating his own party leaders. Without mincing words, he demanded that Nawaz Sharif and Shehbaz Sharif should admit to the people of Pakistan that they had no other option but to go to Saudi Arabia in exile after negotiating a deal with General Musharraf.

Similarly, the Sharifs should also admit to public, if they had millions invested and stashed abroad and preferably try to bring them back. “Stop calling yourself leaders, if you do not have the courage to do this.”

Hashmi did not appear happy with the appearances of ‘good governance” in Punjab either. “Trust me, people have begun talking about corruption in that province as well, and people living in southern Punjab would not bear the lack of civic amenities in their areas, if billion of rupees were invested to build state-of-the-art roads and avenues in Lahore,” he warned. While criticising the focus of ‘development work’ on Lahore, Hashmi did speak for his love for that city, “which gave me fame and always pushed me higher on the political ladder.”

Hashmi paid glowing tribute to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir, but bitterly insisted that the “houses of Hakim Ali Zardari and Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani” were never gloomy after hearing the news of Bhutto’s hanging.

Although on a different occasion, he did concede to the spontaneous laughter in the house and the press gallery that despite his differences with ZAB and Ms Bhutto: “I could always see through their political games. Asif Ali Zardari remains an enigma to me, though. I need a specialised Phd to predict his next move.”

After honestly acknowledging the street-smart edge of Zardari, Hashmi had to forewarn. “All politicians…are seen as incurably corrupt. In politics, perceptions are more relevant than reality, and the corrupt image of politicians always helps extra-parliamentary forces to strike. It is a different matter that after taking over in the name of cleansing corruption, successive dictators in this country have always left behind bigger groups of carpetbaggers. Let’s do something solid to undo this feeling about us.”

Nadim Afzal Chann is also a blunt type. Thursday was bad for this PPP backbencher though; for he was given the mike after Hashmi. His speech might have sounded more hilarious than cynical. It was a delight to hear him repeatedly ‘praying’ for the day, “when Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is the prime minister of this country”. Pretty ticklish he also was while taking on a newspaper group. “Who says that our government does not relish good relations with this group?” he wondered in all innocence. And to convey that things remained lovey-dovey between that group and the government, he named a colleague from that group, “whose inclusion is must in all delegations that accompanies our prime minister to foreign countries!”



Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2011.