Did HH do it on his own or…?

On the last day of yet another National Assembly session the government rushed through some legislative work. Before coming to it, however, Nadeem Afzal Chann and Ms Kashmala Tariq wasted much time in discussing the grave issue of domestic violence in a manner that merely aimed at trivial point-scoring. Doing so, they also resorted to tricks that compulsive pranksters use in their time at school. Ms Tariq also felt the need to inform the house that she represented PML (Likeminded) with “read-my-lips” emphasis.

Most observers had been thinking that she had crossed over to the Nawaz-led faction of Pakistan Muslim League. None of its 94 members of the PML-N attended the sitting on Friday. Their leader in the house, Chaudhry Nisar Ali, had announced a full boycott of the proceedings, unless ‘memogate-triggered’ issues of national security were discussed through a general debate in the National Assembly.

A few journalists told me in confidence that the PML-N legislators might not attend the house when its next session is called. On the coming Monday, Nawaz Sharif is expected to chair an important meeting of his party. The meeting would only focus on the question of “to resign or not to resign” from the National Assembly.

All hawks of the PML-N have closed ranks to forcefully put the demand of submitting en masse resignations by their members in the National Assembly, immediately after the end of Muharram. And also thanks to the influence of these very hawks, Nawaz Sharif had formally asked the Supreme Court to direct the federal government to put Hussain Haqqani on the Exit Control List (ECL).

Hawks within the PML-N insist that a powerful section of our national security outfit frantically desires that our former ambassador to Washington should be taken out of the ‘security cocoon’ that President Zardari is blamed to have provided him. They need to keep him in a ‘safe house’ to answer questions that have been aired to get nothing but the whole truth on ‘memogate.’

I have it from reliable sources that most security boys are convinced that there surely was a memo that Mansoor Ijaz delivered to Admiral Mike Mullen, apparently after being persuaded by Haqqani. They are certain of the trail after forensic chasing of the BBMs exchanged between him and Ijaz. From their point of view, now we only need to find out whether Haqqani acted on his own or ‘the boss’ in effect asked him to get a message delivered to the US military command.

Through nonstop whispers, many journalists have almost been made to believe that if not President Zardari, his do-gooder secretary general, Salman Farooqi, seemed involved at some point of the BBM conversations. Farooqi has firmly denied the damaging rumour already, but his enemies are not giving up.

As a news hunter, I have been dealing with Farooqi for many years. Although very polite but confident and delivering, he always remains too cautious even by the standards of a hardened bureaucrat. I have my doubts that he would walk into mess-creating traps so foolishly.

In this column, we first dropped heavy hints regarding the possibility of Ms Sherry Rehman going to Washington as Pakistan’s ambassador. The day after her appointment, one tried hard to tell the story that she was selected, exclusively by the civilian leadership. The conspiratorial drawing rooms of Islamabad have lost their capacity to take things as they appear, however. Various social media sites are rather flooded to drum the tale that her work at Jinnah Institute brought her closer to the ‘deep state’ and that helped her selection.

To disappoint the promoters of this story, let me humbly report that when tickers breaking the news of her appointment were being played on television screens Tuesday morning, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir was sitting in the office of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Via a discreetly passed chit, the news was conveyed to the two and both were really taken by surprise.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2011.