Politics aside: Likely company, unlikely venue

Politicians at odds with one another back home gather at Pakistan’s High Commission.

LONDON:

It was a most likely company. But considering the ongoing political reshuffling in Pakistan, the company had gathered at a most unlikely venue. The excitement was palpable among the invitees at the High Commission’s reception. Many among the curious were seen doing a genuine double take at the incongruity of the whole thing. And adding to this incongruity was the presence of the federal petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain at the reception.

The milling crowd of wide-eyed invitees at the HC could not comprehend how those very partiers which are forging an alliance back home to launch a decisive movement against the coalition government could agree to be guests of Wajid Shamsul Hasan, (Pakistan’s High Commissioner in the UK), a staunch Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) loyalist.

But, yes they were all there: the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the leaders of the ‘like minded’ faction of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Salim Saifullah Khan and Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri. But intriguingly none said a single word against the government on the occasion. In their speeches, they talked mostly on the need to forge national unity to fight the forces of disunity.

One of the guests was overheard inquiring in all seriousness from Mr Hasan if he was authoring a new ‘London Plan’. Mr Hasan, when he was the Editor of Daily News, a Karachi eveninger, had introduced the term ‘London Plan’ to speculate about an opposition gathering in London in the mid-70s, led by the late Wali Khan of the defunct National Awami Party, to, what he wrote, plan to topple the then Prime Minister ZA Bhutto’s government.

Another one jokingly accused Mr Hasan of conspiring against his own party in collusion with those who are bitterly opposed to the PPP-led coalition government.

Mr Hasan’s one answer to all the speculators was: ‘Look, this is democracy in action. Being the High Commissioner, I am a representative of my country, not the government. And all these leaders are as much representatives of the country as those who are in the ruling alliance. So, the reception is in their honor.’

His Deputy, Mr Durrani had a more plausible answer: ‘All the three, except Kasuri (who is here on a private visit), are on official visits. So, we thought it was only appropriate to arrange a reception in their honor.’ He said that the gesture will certainly be seen by many Pakistanis in the UK and by the UK government itself as signifying the emergence of democratic norms in Pakistani society.

The Punjab chief minister is here on the invitation of the UK government. The JUI-F chief has been invited by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). Chairman Pakistan’s Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Senator Salim Saifullah is here on the invitation of the Chairman UK Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations Mr Richard Ottoway.

Some who claim to know the mind of PPP’s top leadership insisted that the gathering at the HC reception was arranged with the prior approval of President Asif Ali Zardari. They insisted that, on his own, the high commissioner would never have taken such a daring step.

When asked about it Mr Hasan gave a hearty laugh and said such gatherings fit neatly with their policy of reconciliation.

There was, however, no one from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) at the reception. According to one of the officials, no one was invited because no equally senior level member of Muttahida was on an official UK visit. However, the official said, the government and MQM have not stopped talking.

“They are still on our side,” he said, but not with any degree of certainty.

Notwithstanding the amiable attitude of the PML-N leadership at the HC’s reception, the party, according to insiders, was planning to request Governor Punjab Latif Khosa to dissolve the provincial assembly on the eve of senate elections, due in March 2012 – about six months from now.

This is to be followed, the insider said, by en masse resignation of PML-N members along with some of its allies from the National Assembly to force the government to hold elections in the Punjab for the provincial assembly and by-elections for the seats declared vacated because of the resignations from the NA. The purpose of this move is said to be to scuttle the Senate elections which, if held on the due date, would give the PPP a clear majority in the upper house for the next six years. The constitution bars senate elections with an incomplete senate electoral college. The plan, it is said, is to create a situation whereby no option is left except for a government of technocrats to be installed for at least three years – the period the PMLN thinks it needs to re-establish its nation-wide network, which, at the moment, has shrunk to a few Punjab districts.

Meanwhile, Dr Asim said he has plans to import costly gas from neighboring countries but the impact on the rate of inflation would be kept at the most minimum by increasing marginally the rate of the lowest slab and, at the same time, slashing drastically the margins of what he called the “seths’.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2011.