PML-N misses the bus once again

For around six months, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has been repeatedly telling his visitors that he never claimed he would complete five years in office.

“I rather assert that this National Assembly will complete its constitutional tenure of five years come rain or shine. Elect someone else as the prime minister, if you do not like me,” he has said.

Once he also passed the same remarks in my presence during a luncheon meeting. That provoked the reporter in me to question him whether he anticipated any serious threats to his government. He opted to act vague and with equivocal remarks merely referred to March 2012 — when the PPP is almost certain to surge as the single largest party in Senate, provided the current national and provincial assemblies stay intact until then. He sounded certain that anti-PPP forces would make desperate attempts and gang up to deny his party the edge it expected to muster in the first quarter of the next year.

Often, he also recalls with sadistic pleasure that the PPP has always appeared “far more dynamic while sitting in the opposition”. As an incurable cynic, I should have dismissed his remarks as brave-posturing by a PM not sure of his position. But the indifference he expressed regarding staying in the PM’s office was proven by the comments he made when a colleague recalled the PPP’s problems with the MQM after Zulfikar Mirza’s tirade late August.

“From the word go, I had clearly told the president that keeping them (the MQM) on board is not my headache. He should deal with them himself.” He adopted a similar position when it came to sustaining the support of the PML-Q.

I have been closely witnessing the comings and goings of various PMs in this country since 1985. None of his predecessors ever appeared to be enjoying this with such comfort. Without any exception, all of them were rather found working overtime to survive in office and vigilantly looked at threats with a determined approach of nipping them in the bud. Gilani is proving doubly lucky these days. After passage of the 18th Amendment, he enjoys more constitutional powers than even Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He not only is fully aware of these powers but also uses them assertively.

After the usual thundering and slogan chanting in the house on Thursday, PML-N MNAs walked out. Aftab Ahmed Sherpao and the JUI-F representatives joined them at the main entrance of the Parliament House. With chants of go-Zardari-go, they all walked to the presidency. Cameramen chased their rally live and excited anchors in the studios took commentators on phones to find out whether the Thursday-rally would be taken as the beginning of the end of “this corrupt and incompetent government.”

The hyped excitement on TV screens looked pathetically akin to characters and scenes of plays associated with the theatre of the absurd. Since Thursday morning, for example, the residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad were supplied with uninterrupted electricity.

The gimmick seemed to have worked — also let’s not forget last night’s one-man-fire-brigade of the Zardari-Gilani government which manoeuvred the return of the MQM to the federal and Sindh government.

Hours before that, a long meeting was also held with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. Instead of tendering resignations, they vowed to contest the next elections with the PPP. This pledge was a virtual snub to Nawaz Sharif, who had finally announced to forget and forgive the PML-Q, if its members left the PPP-led coalition.

Nawaz expressed willingness to support the replacement of Gilani with even a non-PML-N MNA. He surely was too late in offering such a tempting offer.

We have to wait for hatching of another game to get Zardari. Until then watch television if you are getting bored. After all the, ‘idiot box’ is all about ‘home entertainment.’

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2011.