Aitzaz to the rescue

Sudden naming of Aitzaz to plead for Gilani in Supreme Court is seen like a concrete step in that direction.

Two PPP members of the National Assembly separately stopped me for small talk while I was on my way to the press gallery Tuesday morning. Although relatively young and first-timers to this assembly, both belonged to known political families of central Punjab that have remained loyal to the PPP since its birth in 1967.

They sounded agitated.

Almost in delirium, they narrated stories to sell the message that “ministers from our coalition parties are minting money with audacious and ruthless means, but only our party is being perceived corrupt by media and public at large.” It was time, they believed, that the PPP should facilitate holding of fresh elections by firmly sticking to its ‘basic ideology.’

They were convinced that, after fresh elections, they would have to sit on the opposition benches, “if at all elected to the house.” Winning or losing the election didn’t seem important to them. Far more important was “to get out of the defensive mindset of these days.” After listening to their heart burning, I was just not surprised when Jamshed Dasti forced the chair to let him speak on a point of order.

Most urbanite viewers of the electronic media consider Dasti a prototype of our usual politicians – or worse. He was accused of reaching the assembly by posing as a graduate with an allegedly ‘fake degree.’ The allegation forced him to face humiliation before the Supreme Court in the end. Instead of waging a legal battle, he resigned from his seat in anger and got reelected with a comfortable margin.

I used to be in the crowd of Dasti-haters. During the floods of 2010, however, I spent around two weeks in his district, Muzzafarghar, and the experience of reporting from the field made me realise how different he is from the one I had percieved. In the feudal-dominated Muzzafarghar, Dasti is an exception for having reached the National Assembly without owning any land. His strength lies in remaining available to his constituents, literally around the clock. Anecdotal stories rather furnish attributes to him that force you to view him as a kind of a Seraiki version of Robin Hood.

After being given permission to speak, Dasti started naming names of a few officials posted as engineers in his area. All of them work under Federal Ministry of Housing and Works. Makhdom Faisal Saleh Hayat is holding that ministry these days, and Dasti kept insisting that “millions are demanded for the postings and transfers of these officers.” He kept begging the chair to form a parliamentary committee to help him prove allegations of massive corruption against Faisal Saleh Hayat with “concrete evidence.”

The chair was not budged, but the damage had been done.

And no one from the ruling benches should now feel bad if the Supreme Court takes suo moto action to seek the truth. If such a thing happened, the development might prove doubly absurd. After all, Faisal Saleh Hayat took the lead in blaming the government for minting millions in the name of rental power projects, while sitting on opposition benches. To prove his allegations, he also went to the Supreme Court and even after joining the Zardari-Gilani government as a powerful minister kept appearing in the court to pursue the case. I wonder how Makhdom Sahib from Shah Jewna would react to what Dasti had said about him on the floor of the house. He cannot send notices of libel to Dasti; for what he said was from the floor of an elected parliament. Short of agreeing to clear his position before a parliamentary committee, Makhdom Sahib must confront Dasti while invoking the right of answer.

Notwithstanding the public or private outbursts by frustrated ruling party MNAs, one is forced to report that Zardari-Gilani government is working overtime to find a workable strategy to refute the image of insecurity about it. The sudden naming of Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan to plead for Yousaf Raza Gilani when he appears before the Supreme Court on Jan 19 is seen like a concrete step in that direction. Yet, the government’s problems with “them” remain unresolved. I have it from a highly reliable source that the praetorian elite had yet not swallowed the unceremonious sacking of the defense secretary by the prime minister. The president, one is told, is somewhat sympathetic to their wounded pride. But at this stage, he just cannot afford ditching Gilani. For the past two days, Zardari has been discreetly trying to find a win-win solution. A senior minister was planning to suggest to him that, short of rehabilitating Lodhi to his office, the praetorian supporters of the sacked defense secretary could still be pacified if he was nominated as ambassador to an important country.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2012.