Of speeches, signals and splits

You cannot sustain your relevance to electoral scene by disregarding the compulsions of your ‘biradri’ and ‘dhara’.

ISLAMABAD:

For the first time since 1991, a joint parliamentary sitting got the opportunity of listening to the annual address of a president of Pakistan with customary deference and by observing all rules and protocols, slightly pompous and yawn-inducing as they might be.

Even the belatedly resurrected rebel and rabble-rouser Sheikh Rashid Ahmad of Rawalpindi did not seem to be itching to create a scene that would have made for a juicy story for the media.

There hardly was anything newsy in the 20-minute address of the President. In broader context, though, it did affirm the reality that the democratic system is fast stabilizing in a country that endured long spells of brute military interventions in its brief history.

Finally, a duly elected civilian President succeeded to oversee the transition from one to another elected government. The routine and thus dull looking happenings at the parliament Monday have invoked hopes and surely forced many a hardened cynics to review their defeatist prognosis for Pakistan.

However, the smooth sailings of Monday will still not stop me to report that swelling ranks of the lifelong loyalists of Pakistan Peoples Party have begun desperately desiring that Asif Ali Zardari must leave the Presidency ASAP.

May 11, 2013 has made their party to appear irrelevant for future politics. It retained hold over Sindh, for sure, but in the process appeared as if reduced down to a dying breed of clubby landlords confined to various swaths in rural areas of that province.

Most of the average jiyalas of Pakistan Peoples Party are keen to see Asif Ali Zardari switching and focusing all his energies in giving a new birth to this party. Although fully conscious of their dreams and desires, Zardari doesn’t seem too eager to stage a second coming.

Sources close to him continue to insist that he remains adamant to complete his term until September of this year and duly handover to an appropriately elected successor.

One of his diehard loyalists beseeched me to carefully read and ponder over the fine print of his ‘usual-sounding speech’ of Monday. With a ticklish tone he referred to remarks where the President seemed to hint that a particular pillar of the state, read: the judiciary, had gradually begun encroaching into “others’” territory” through its ceaseless initiatives.

The elected parliamentarians are feeling compelled to reclaim that lost speech. Mehmood Khan Achakzai, an ardent defender and promoter of the idea of parliament’s supremacy, had already talked about it, almost bluntly, while delivering a welcome speech over the election of Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister of Pakistan. President Zardari’s remarks in the said context subtly committed full support and cooperation, if the PML-N wants to make any substantial moves.

In the same context, the conspiracy theorists of Islamabad seem very keen to find out ‘the person’ who had persuaded the prime minister to appoint Munir A Malik, a lead star of the pro-judiciary movement in 2007, as the Attorney General. A plethora of stories are being narrated in this regard, but I will prefer to ignore all of them at this stage.

Disregarding the quest to find out nothing but the whole truth regarding the appointment of Munir A Malik, one has to report that in these too early days of the third Sharif government, the ruling party seems to be splitting into two visible camps. Khawaja Asif and Ishaq Dar are obvious patrons of urban based, mostly professional PML-N types from Central Punjab.

They would want to pursue the notion of good governance by corporate management of the energy and economic crises. Discreetly biding their time are the usual electables from rural and semi-urban constituencies who seriously believe that, in the end, all politics are local.

You cannot sustain your relevance to the electoral scene by disregarding the clannish compulsions of your ‘biradri’ and ‘dhara’. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is the person they are fondly looking up to for getting back into the power games. The forthcoming budget sessions will certainly crystallize the brewing tensions between the two camps but until then we will have to wait and see.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2013.