A day’s gap in next NA sitting stirs fresh speculation

A PML-N member from Islamabad, Dr Fazal Chaudhry, presided most of the Wednesday sitting. While adjourning the house, he fixed Friday morning for the next meeting of the national assembly. All journalists sitting in the press gallery instantly presumed as if he had erred while reading the written order, but he proved right when we double-checked. Now we felt agitated to find out as to why the government had decided not to summon the national assembly Thursday.

For the lack of any credible answer, most of us almost took it for granted that Nawaz Sharif might have thought of calling an extraordinary meeting of the federal cabinet to deliberate over the issue of letting Musharraf leave the country on Thursday morning. Only some moments before writing this column, however, I could find from reliable sources that the decision of not letting Musharraf leave the country had already been made in early hours of Wednesday afternoon.

The prime minister was rather reported as feeling too agitated since Tuesday night over nonstop building of a perception through 24/7 channels that made the world feel that his government seemed stuck in a Catch-22 type situation. Most media stories have also been claiming that Nawaz Sharif was not being able to say no to Musharraf’s request to fly off, ostensibly with the sole intent of visiting his mother currently admitted to a hospital of Sharjah, due to formidable pressure both from within and outside Pakistan.

Due to our peculiar history of civ-mil relations, most media persons were somewhat justified to imagine that after much reluctance and resistance, Gen (retd) Musharraf finally agreed to appear before the court and politely listen to the charge sheet read against him due to some win-win sounding backroom deal. In return to his appearance before the court, his flying off appeared a ‘logical quid pro quo,” also if put in the emotional context of visiting an old and ailing mother.

Only by hindsight, one can now claim that by delivering harsh speeches during the national assembly sitting of Monday evening, the trio of Achakzai, Khawaja Asif and Pervaiz Rashid had firmly set the grounds for saying no to Musharraf’s request of going abroad. Most political aides that he consulted on the same question a day after fully supported the same position.

Nawaz Sharif had mostly kept quiet during these deliberations. Yet he often asked the promoters of the idea of “finding a middle ground” that how after letting Musharraf fly off, he could sustain the reputation of a politician who refused to succumb to “pressure” from powerful quarters of the domestic and foreign establishment. He also kept reminding them that he was committed to establish the ‘rule of law’ and could not afford to appear “compromising” on this count.

Around two weeks ago, he had a long informal meeting with a non-PML politician. He had worriedly confided to him that while dealing with foreign governments, especially the ones considered ‘hostile’ and not-too-friendly, the third-time prime minister of Pakistan was finding it too difficult to make them understand that the power-scene was radically different in his country these days. The so-called deep state does not decide on everything anymore while silently operating behind the façade of a government of elected civilians.

Since surfacing of the flood of Musharraf-related speculations, the said politician had not met the prime minister. But talking to this correspondent in parliamentary lobbies Tuesday, the same politician sounded too confident while predicting that Nawaz Sharif would not let Musharraf fly off. “He will not concede an inch on this matter come what may,” the politician had kept stressing.

Only after meeting him, I had found from reliable sources that the Prime Minister’s Office had also made up its mind to instruct the government lawyers to “fiercely contest,” if Musharraf’s lawyers appealed to the court to seek permission for his going abroad. All the vocal ministers of the Nawaz government were also instructed to spin the story with frequent appearances on media that it was not with a vindictive intent of getting even with Mushaarraf for his acts of Oct 12, 1999 and later on, that the government had said no to his request for going abroad. The one and only objective is to facilitate a fast track disposal of the case against Musharraf. Although the idea of “condoning him, if need be,” is yet not rejected firmly, the third government of Nawaz Sharif seems adamant to see a “usurper punished in Pakistan,” howsoever “token” it may sound in the end.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2014.