New premier: Something old, something new

One was still not surprised to find MQM, JI voting for the man they had been laughing at since his fall in 1997.

ISLAMABAD:

A nonstop track of voices and faces from my accumulated memories kept on playing in my mind while the national assembly of Pakistan was passing through the procedural ropes of electing a new prime minister Wednesday morning.

There indeed were times when the usual icons of our defeatist and bankrupt elite would strain their lungs to convince luckless romantics like me that Nawaz Sharif was history; that the national and international establishments were adamantly determined to block his return to the office of Pakistan’s prime minister.

And yet, here came a day when that same Nawaz Sharif was sitting on a front row seat, calmly waiting for the inevitable. Doubly amusing seemed the anxiety of those members of the national assembly who had diligently served and defended the doings of General Musharraf throughout his reign; they were far more eager to reach the lobby reserved for those willing to mark their support for Nawaz Sharif.

One was still not surprised to find the MQM and Jamaat-e-Islami voting for the man they had been laughing at so assiduously since his fall in 1997. Maulana Fazlur Rehman and his JUI-F simply reflected their crafty pragmatism by doing the same and so did Aftab Ahmed Sherpao.

After Nawaz Sharif’s delivery of a cautiously drafted ‘acceptance speech,’ various heads of different political parties were invited to hail his election. Mehmood Khan Achakzai certainly outclassed and outshone the rest. Clinically restrained but sagacious, he was to plead to everyone elected to the house that it was time to sincerely assert the supremacy of a house elected by the people of Pakistan.

In this country, we now have a fiercely independent judiciary and hyperactive media. No problems with that; but all of them, including the national security elite, must now bow before the supremacy of an elected house and work within the parameters clearly defined in our constitution.

Achakzai showed his generosity in recalling that there had been judges from the superior judiciary who went home for not endorsing the successive and frequent subversion of Pakistan’s constitution and its democratic process. They returned home and died unsung. It was time to acknowledge their heroism. Similarly, there have also been Army Chiefs like Jehangir Karamat. In 1998, he too took no time in submitting his resignation when the then prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, felt uncomfortable with some of his remarks delivered at the end of a seminar at the Naval College of Lahore. “He could also have taken over like the rest of the usurpers and we must praise his conduct,” Achakzai demanded passionately.

Discussing those uniformed usurpers, one can certainly not forget General Musharraf, currently pining for the good old days while detained at his palatial house in a high-end sector of Islamabad. “Musharraf was not alone in subverting the constitution,” thundered the ardent democrat from Balochistan, “yet we must not forget that a coterie of military officers, bureaucrats and politicians shamelessly collaborated with him.”

Most journalists in the press gallery instantly suspected that Nawaz Sharif had ‘winked’ at Achakzai to “suggest a bailout package for General Musharraf” through these remarks. I tend to believe otherwise. Nawaz Sharif is not feeling comfortable with the return of the former military dictator and his problems with the judiciary. Our national security elite also feel jittery about his “humiliation” these days. Both the newly elected prime minister and the national security elite would want to move on by forgiving, if not forgetting, the past and focusing on the present. Yet, the question is: how to go about it? I don’t think the very deep and politically correct speech of Achakzai can help in this context.

While the PkMAP chief was delivering his passionate speech, many eyes from the press gallery were riveted to a front row in the gallery reserved for the guests of the speaker national assembly. Dr Maleeha Lodhi looked conspicuous while sitting there. Arif Nizami and a former senator, Enver Beg, were sitting on her right and left and the person sitting next to Nizami was none other than Tariq Fatmi. After retiring from the Foreign Office, Fatmi has been assisting Nawaz Sharif in dealing with diplomats since 2010. Many in Islamabad feel that while retaining the Foreign Office with him, Nawaz Sharif can appoint Fatmi as an advisor with the status and powers of a federal minister. A lobby of retired diplomats is already working overtime to scuttle the possible appointment of Fatmi and a crowd of self-declared experts of the delicate art of diplomacy is seeking Nawaz Sharif’s attention for being appointed as Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington. By discreetly surfacing in the Speaker’s gallery Wednesday, Dr Lodhi made many journalists speculate that, like Nawaz Sharif, she may also soon relish her third chance. I have doubts, though. The man to watch in this respect is none other than Sartaj Aziz; provided, Nawaz Sharif does not ask him to head the soon-to-be-restored office of a National Security Advisor.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2013.