‘Historic’ — a well tried term

Nawaz Sharif has been absent from parliament for over a decade but he has been far from sleeping.

Most that is happening on the political scenario these days is termed ‘historic’ — though too often, history is forgotten, one national trait being convenient amnesia. History, it is said, is being made as if it did not exist heretofore. In his political career, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is no stranger at all to ‘historic’ moments.

Yes, indeed, Mian Nawaz Sharif himself has been absent from parliament for over a decade but for the past five years, he has been far from sleeping. He had headed his party in a most friendly and amenable opposition. Very wise of him, he knew (if we had any doubts) that his turn would come again, inevitably. So, yes, maybe he has learned from the past many years and has hopefully sobered down in his natural confrontational attitude.

Apart from the fact of the Eighteenth Amendment, Mr Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari seem to have no problem in coexisting in politics, both giving each other succour and support. Knowing commentators take this back to the ‘historic’ signing of the Charter of Democracy, when the two teams who had played musical chairs throughout the 1990s (once enemies), found themselves earlier this century united against one common enemy.

It was the day that Mr Sharif, for the ‘historic’ third time, was elected as prime minister that history raised its strange head. His face and demeanour as he ‘inspected’ the military guard of honour at his third-time home was remarkable in its grimness. Without looking left or right, staring blankly ahead, a picture of misery, thoughts of the past were obviously fleeting through his mind. Was he dwelling on his first prime ministerial ending in 1993, or was it the second humiliation of October 1999?

Brought into prime ministerial power on November 6, 1990 by what is known as the ‘establishment’, Mian Sahib never had a comfortable relationship with the then president or military. On April 17, 1993 in a ‘historic’ address to the nation, PM Sharif alleged, inter alia, that certain elements under the patronage of the president were conspiring against him. He declared he would not resign, nor dismiss the National Assembly, and that he would not ‘take dictation.’ Twenty-four hours later, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, using the convenient (and ‘historic’) Article 58(2)(b) dismissed the cabinet and the assembly.

On April 25, 1993, Mian Sahib moved the Supreme Court asking that the dissolution be declared mala fide etc, etc, and that it be declared null and void. Well, history was made when the Court, on May 26, 1993, announced its verdict, holding Mian Sahib’s petition maintainable. Within minutes he was back in his seat with a restored assembly. A ‘historic’ occasion.

Things chugged along, uneasily and with much general confrontation, until July 18, 1993 when the ‘establishment’ once more found itself unable to stomach the national political scenario. The army chief of the day, the inscrutable and respected General Waheed Kakar, without raising his swagger stick, in one fell swoop sent packing both prime minister and his cantankerous president. A truly historic happening.

Mr Sharif had to wait until February 17, 1997 before he could get back again. Well, we all know of the ‘historic’ event of October 12, 1999, which was probably on Mian Sahib’s mind when earlier this month, he had his third guard of honour lined up to receive him.

In parliamentary democracies, prime ministers do not have military personnel breathing down their necks, they do not have military secretaries and ADCs. Here, it is a bad hangover from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who, when he moved from the presidency to the prime minister’s house, initiated the wrong. In view of his ‘historic’ relationship with the military, and in keeping with parliamentary democratic norms (and how about austerity?), would it not be fitting were Mian Sahib to dispense with what he should not have — a military staff?

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd,  2013.

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