The day of the two Shahs

The story-book façade of a ‘government of elected civilians’ that the praetorian elite had created for the state of Pakistan through the elections of 2008 is crumbling fast. None of its stakeholders seems interested to provide any life-support treatment to it. Most are rather going extra mile to demolish it with reckless vengeance.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the ever-angry leader of the opposition, came in the house only for taking the mike to announce that instead of sitting in the assembly, the PML legislators were walking out to sit with Syed Nasir Shah.

This PPP MNA from Quetta has refused to attend assembly proceedings, until the provincial government of Balochistan was dismissed through the enforcement of Governor’s rule in his province. The nonstop killing of Hazara community, which now projects the appearances of ruthless cleansing of a definite community, provoked him to announce the said decision.

After reaching the parliament house, he sits right in front of its main entrance every morning. After walking out of the house, Nisar and his comrades sat with him in solidarity. They were not alone in doing this. Many from the ruling PPP also marked their presence around Nasir Shah throughout Wednesday.

Disregarding these embarrassing happenings, the government preferred to discuss the issue of load shedding in a business-as-usual manner. Aftab Ahmed Sherpao delivered an important speech on the subject. For many months, he was the minister of water and power in Musharraf-Jamali government. Thanks to this exposure, he had solid data to drum the reality that electricity supplies were far more disruptive in his province. The provincial government of the “self-proclaimed champions of Pushtun grievances” miserably failed to make the right noises about it, however.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi stole the show while speaking from the ruling benches. Prime Minister Gilani was present in the house, when he had the floor. Qureshi, who had refused to take oath as a minister, when Zardari-Gilani duo decided to send him to the ministry of water and power, seemed boiling with anger. After saying no to his leaders, the former foreign minister went on a long tour of Sindh. The obvious objective was to call the bluff of the so-called ‘Sindh card’ that Zardari is accused of playing whenever in deep trouble.

Qureshi was ferocious Wednesday. He kept insisting that the PPP’s grassroots were feeling depressed and dejected. They feel that post-Benazir Bhutto leadership is failing to protect “the ideological base” of this party. Often, I felt the cynical smirk on my face, when Qureshi was talking of “ideological base.” Probably, from the hall, Qureshi noticed that as well; for, soon he switched to tell us that the majority of Islamabad-based diplomats unanimously feel that the present government of Pakistan “could not deliver.” As the foreign minister he got the same message, when he tried to seek international help for the flood victims last year and he honestly shared ‘negative thoughts’ of the donor-community with the president and the prime minister. No one moved to correct things. The time has come, he believed, that mainstream PPP MNAs should start speaking up and forced the government for course correction. “Otherwise, you would only be able to save your seat in the assembly or a minister’s office, maximum for another four months,” he forewarned like divinely-blessed clairvoyant.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2011.