NawazSharifism — an ideology?

NawazSharifism may mean leaving your responsibilities as a senior minister of the governmen

Our former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, is saying many things these days; and since his party is a leading member of the PDM, much of what he is saying during the meetings of this alliance of opposition parties through video link cannot reach the ears of the common people. While he is heading the opposition’s onslaught not only on the government but the country’s establishment also, why doesn’t he not lead from the front? Why doesn’t he come back home and allow us to hear what he has to say? Why doesn’t he lead the long march planned against the government? We have heard that the PPP is also demanding his presence in Pakistan as a condition for them to participate in the proposed long march, so what stops the former PM to really go for the jugular and strike the death nail in the government’s coffin? Students of politics are raising these questions, and how they will be answered will become the most interesting story of our politics in year 2021. But first something about our former premier.

Post-Panamagate, we first time heard our former PM talking about his belief in an ideology. What kind of ideology he believes in is not very clear but he is on record having said that “Nawaz Sharif is the name of an ideology”? If this is true, then as a student of politics I am inclined to call it NawazSharifism. What then is this NawazSharifism? But before looking at NawazSharifism, just a reminder on the three well-known ideologies that all of us can relate to because of their sheer weight of significance, application and also importance. These ideologies have not only been politically sustainable but have survived a long time and flourished.

Capitalism is an ideology that empowers private owners to own industries and trade rather than the state; socialism is an ideology that promotes and sustains community-driven concept of ownership of reward; and communism is an ideology in which community and common ownership of rewards are overseen by the state. This in context, can we now explain NawazSharifism?

Apparently, NawazSharifism means that the sovereignty rests with a single ruler and not with the state. That he is the sole dictator: the ultimate guide, visionary and protector of whatever form of political culture he wants to introduce — a culture that has no room for showing political dissent, a culture in which a brigade of ‘Gullu Butts’ are readily available to defend it. This ideology promotes hiring paid demonstrators who raise anti-government slogans and shower flower petals on everything and anything that they have been ordered to respect and admire.

NawazSharifism may also mean smart utilisation of the heaps of public money to build farm houses, purchase properties, own flats in foreign countries, erect boundary walls around their palaces and construct roads that lead to them, besides doling it out to party members in the form of development funds to keep their political loyalty aligned not to the state but to the person — Nawaz Sharif.

NawazSharifism may also mean leaving your responsibilities as a senior minister of the government and being part of the greater game of Nawaz Sharif’s political redemption by being available all the time standing hands tied in the row of ‘court jesters’ whenever your leader appears in accountability courts.

NawazSharifism seeks to pursue national unity and solidarity but in an absolutely different and unaccustomed manner. Not the national interests but NawazSharifism means that personal and family interests must be safeguarded and protected at all costs — even if state institutions are to be scorned and made a mockery of it is alright.

NawazSharifism insists that it is only the Sharif family that has the right to occupy the central role in party politics and all others are the political sideliners who can be admitted into the cabinet and given political recognition only if they prove their absolute loyalty not to the state but to the Sharif family.

So, who protects and guards the ideology of NawazSharifism? Not the Sharif family but a political idea which states that collectivism will bring political rewards and the righteousness of a cause does not matter; what matters is the collective benefit of everyone if they can get together under a single banner and promote NawazSharifism. Everyone in the PDM subscribed to it until Asif Zardari tossed in a towel. For those who still don’t understand the ‘concept of NawazSharifism’ must read the JIT report on Panama Leaks, the Supreme Court’s decision, and the Model Town Judicial Commission Report.

Unfortunately for us and our politics, Bhuttoism which was a more politically pertinent ideology has gradually faded away in the mist of time — not because Bhuttoism as an ideology no more inspires people. In fact, people still look up to it but those that do are divided in two categories: those who cherish the idea of the current PPP leadership leading it; and those who don’t. Bhuttoism was a socialist nationalist ideology that got very popular with the common people whose life it was promising to change unlike NawazSharifism which as an ideology is guided by only one factor — protection and survival of Nawaz Sharif’s family in politics, meaning only if he politically survives, we may expect better prospect in our lives. Such an assumption is politically very selfish and although we may witness many followers of this ideology thronging the roads and streets for acquiring short-term benefits, the likelihood of NawazSharifism to sustain and survive as a political concept in the long run is as bleak as the chances of Nawaz Sharif and his family to avoid punishment in the cases they are being prosecuted against.

Revolutionism is also an ideology which basically means supporting and promoting a given political agenda. A sustained revolution of NawazSharifism is not likely to change the political system for the better or the lives of the people who seek to benefit from this concept. I see neither of the two happening for a plain and simple reason — NawazSharifism in its current shape is an ideology that doesn’t seek to forge national unity but instead divide it. Currently it also treads a destructive path on which it seeks to confront state institutions and every time it seeks to harm, hurt or damage the prestige of state institutions all it does is further glorify them and add to its own unpopularity.

Fortunately, we are witnessing the do and die battle of survival of the ideology of NawazSharifism. The support to this kind of ideology can only come from individuals and political parties that want to see Pakistan not as an ‘Impersonal State’ but a “Patrimonial State’ in which the occupiers of political offices in the government continue to indulge in favoritism and nepotism and patronise mediocrity over meritocracy — and this is something that this country doesn’t need.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2021.

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