How nazriyati is Punjab?

Plainly stated, nazriyati here is the euphemism that the PML-N chief, Nawaz Sharif, and his daughter Maryam Nawaz espouse as their anti-establishment, or even more plainly speaking, anti-army narrative. Period. No qualifications, no amount of dilly-dallying with the crux should take away what resides at the core of this argument. Why so is equally important. One giveaway is how keenly has the liberalist segment of the social elite, and thus the media, taken after this popular gambit. Unfortunately the sentiment is, one, mere posturing and second, without roots in real politics of the masses. Their needs are most basic without regard from which school of thought those get delivered. Maryam Nawaz styles after Benazir Bhutto but without the obtaining conditions — personal or political — which made Benazir the leader she was.

If anything a historical recollection of Punjabi politics is instructive. When the Muslim League first called for a separate homeland for Muslims there were immediate converts; among them Bengal and Sindh. NWFP’s Congress Ministry was understandably reluctant to endorse the idea till a referendum was held under the considerable influence of the English governor which asked of the province to be included in Pakistan. Those that had worked to elicit a positive vote for Pakistan were duly rewarded in the Muslim League ministry. NWFP’s vote for Pakistan didn’t come easy.

Punjab, however, under Malik Khizar Hayat Tiwana’s Unionist Ministry would just not come around to the idea of Pakistan. Bengalis — ultra-nationalists in their make-up and egalitarian to the core — had always assumed that all of Bengal would be included in the new state and hence had instantly concurred. Seeped in the oneness of the Bengalis they had lent their weight to the idea of Muslim League knowing how crucial it was to carve a separate homeland. Sonar Bangla would make one hell of a country. Punjab was equally sensitive to a similar sentiment but a different set of determinants held her back from endorsing partition. To it when India was divided into two nations, so will be Punjab from the single entity that was unitary, resolute and buoyant. This is how the Punjabi political leadership at the helm thought. The people weren’t yet factored in.

The Punjab Ministry ruled over all of Punjab and since it was a Muslim-majority area it invariably had Muslim premiers heading it. The Unionist party was so named to keep Punjab together and Khizar was sworn to desist the idea of dividing Punjab. Muslim-majority areas were, however, the key to adding weight to Jinnah’s call for a separate Muslim homeland and crucial to convincing the English arbiters and Hindu Congress leadership of the feasibility of the idea. Bengal had agreed. Punjab was a hurdle. Jinnah needed Punjab in his corner without which Pakistan would not deliver.

To that end, as the masses warmed to Jinnah’s call for Pakistan, Khizar Tiwana’s continuity as Punjab’s premier became untenable even after he had contrived another win in a coalition for his party in the 1946 elections. Pressured by a building public opinion against his stance on Pakistan and forced by key defections of his Muslim associates from the ranks who went over to Jinnah he ultimately relinquished charge in 1947. The English governor took over and completed the formalities of Partition. Punjab became Muslim League’s and Pakistan was delivered by Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Islam and nationalism underpinned the Pakistan movement. Towards the later years Muslim Punjabis were driven by slogans that manifested these two elements in how the Quaid had shaped the peoples movement for Pakistan. The mass killings and bloodshed on both sides of divided Punjab while being tragic entrenched these characteristics. A million or more perished in giving birth to a nation. Four wars with India reinforced such repose. Over the decades three things have thus defined the ideology of a Punjabi: his religion, his nationalism, and all that embraces these two. The wars with India and a backdrop of communal hate which in the first place gave birth to the Two-Nation Theory crystallised into an eminence of Pakistan’s military as a symbol of this entrenched belief system. How will a Punjabi now imbibe an ideology which instead takes on the country’s military against his internalised belief will define whether PML-N’s latest innovation will stand the test of time.

Punjabis, for decades, have contributed the most to Pakistan’s armed forces. Perpetual animosity with India and the need to defend against her belligerence underwrites a Punjabi’s perception of the threat and the role that Pakistani armed forces hold in thwarting such heinous agenda of the enemies of the country. That’s the mental makeup. This hasn’t changed and reinforces the DNA of the Punjabi nationalist ideology. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was glorified by Punjab for his stance on Kashmir and against India, not as much for democracy. Politicians tend to colour their narratives differently post-facto.

Similarly, the election pattern in Punjab is electable driven not democracy driven. This differentiation is important. It is for the electable to then choose who he would align with. People vote a person, not a party as a rule. There are only two exceptions to this: ZAB who held onto the defining mantra and won Punjab over; and Imran Khan who touched the imagination of many even if he now seems short of his promised potential. Despite a new class of voters that IK agitated majority of the traditional voters is still very much the posse of the traditional electable in Punjab. Rather than an ideological alignment tribal loyalty is what makes for political success. The trick is to keep the electable aligned. Voters come with the package.

So, to impute an ideological shift especially more tuned to liberalist values of politics and society is hardly relevant to the masses in Punjab. Just as in the Khizar Hayat case who may have nurtured a contrarian trend the masses broke ranks as soon as notions closer to their sense of belief were invoked. Punjab hasn’t changed. This is true that the traditional electable still is very much in the PML-N fold, largely — and that shall be PTI’s challenge in any next election to disprove — but to embellish that political peculiarity into an ideological novelty is creative to say the least. Punjab is conservative and traditional; even its rural towns and a few metropolises.

Idealistic liberalism is more a thing of the past. Twenty-first century beckons its own set of challenges especially in Pakistan where a 20^th-century society is the bane and in perpetual conflict with those ideals of modernist politics. It needs a kind of nimble political maturity to navigate past these contradictions yet move the state and the society forward in their respective spheres. Conflict and confrontation is not what will get us there. IK failed to comprehend this foundational difference and has thus constantly lost political space. Maryam Nawaz and Bilawal Bhutto will do themselves immense good by avoiding this pitfall. There is a new world out there and it needs them to be progressive, inclusive, immensely brilliant and non-confrontational. Can they make the break with their past? It will determine what becomes of us as a nation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2020.

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