Newfound zeal to cleanse politicians’ image

A fairly large number of youthful first-timers had come to the National Assembly through slyly manipulated elections of 2002. General Musharraf held those elections after relishing three years of absolute control. Many journalists seriously believed that this group of “foreign educated” first-timers would not succumb to the dictates of khaki-led establishment, almost spinelessly, like the usual ‘notables’ from rural constituencies.

Elected on a PPP ticket from an area where a veteran player of electoral games, Syed Fakhar Imam, had solid roots, Raza Hayat Hiraj appeared too promising in the said context. From the day one of reaching Islamabad, he put himself on fast track to upward mobility, however.

To get their nominee for the prime minister’s office, Zafarullah Jamali, “duly elected” from the National Assembly, Musharraf and his manipulating machine desperately needed turncoats from amongst the PPP legislators. As an old hostel-mate of Musharraf, Rao Sikandar of Okara was ready to deliver. Also available were the power-brokering talents of Faisal Saleh Hayat.

Raza Hiraj became a darling of both. Joined the Musharraf-supporting ‘patriots’ and bagged the ministry of law for him. He returned to the assembly of 2008 as well. But after the fall of Musharraf, went into virtual wilderness. After many months of soul-searching, he resurfaced to start participating in popular political shows of electronic media, almost like a regular, and impressed many with his soft-spoken admission of past mistakes.

With the zeal of a neo-convert, the reinvented Hiraj now appears obsessed to “cleanse the dirty image of politicians.” In the same vein, he prepared draft of a constitutional amendment two months ago. “No one having any property or a bank account in a foreign country, whether in his name or associated with spouses and children, should be allowed to contest elections”, is the main objective of his amendment. He also wants that persons with dual nationalities should not be allowed to hold any elected or unelected office in Pakistan.

After posting his draft to the assembly secretariat, Hiraj has diligently been approaching influential journalists and perception-swaying TV anchors to passionately lobby for a quick adoption of his amendment by legislators. Tuesday, he finally had the chance to formally present his proposed bill.

Speaking for it, he did not sound very convinced and passionate. He was rather apologetic while asserting that 95 per cent of his legislator colleagues were squeaky clean, “but they all get a bad name, just because a roughly five per cent of us had amassed huge assets abroad.”

Realizing that his apologetic pleading was not swaying the house, Hiraj attempted to instill the fear of self-appointed cleaners of our politics amongst them. Media, he lamented, was projecting politicians as unrepentant villains. If allowed to perpetuate, this image will facilitate only those, always waiting to pack up the democratic system. He genuinely believed that if adopted, the amendments put by him would protect the system.

Syed Khurshid Shah was asked to deal with the issue. This cool cat from Sukkur sounded like a deadly cynic while dismissing the amendment proposed by Hiraj, as “unworkable, though based on noble intentions.” Too casually, he recalled that Raza Hiraj also had his graduation from a foreign university. Obviously, he must have been paying his fee and meeting daily expenses through a “foreign account.” In all innocence, he also wondered as to why Hiraj was trying to deny the opportunity, he had relished, i.e., foreign education to sons and daughters of legislators, who can afford it with their “hard earned money” or “God-gifted wealth.” Hiraj had no answers to Shah’s cynical questioning. Still, the street-smart Khurshid Shah did not block the sending of Hiraj’s bill to the committee concerned. It surely was lethal attempt to deny Hiraj the chance of earning brownie points with “politics-cleaning brigade.”

As an admirer of gentlemanly Hiraj, I seriously wanted that instead of passionate point scoring in the National Assembly Tuesday, he should have been telling us nothing but truth regarding his mother party of these days, PML-Q. Parliamentary reporters have been getting credible tips from “deep throats” throughout the last week that Chaudhrys of Gujrat were offered more than five important ministries for their nominees to furnish the appearances of a ‘national government’ in this government.

After a lot of in-house discussions, we are now told, they are ready to grab the offer. The question under deliberation only focuses upon how to go about it. And these are not the ministries that had been dangled. Also on the plate is recommendation for Pakistan’s representative to United Nation. For whom this offer appears tailor made? Don’t force me to name the person. I don’t have confirmation from the proverbial mouth of the horse, although none other than Faisal Saleh Hayat told a source that I would trust blindly over the weekend that “Mushahid has now said OK to the idea of joining the government.”

Published in The Express Tribune