Reckless use of the colorful street language

It now is becoming increasingly obvious: Nawaz Sharif has had enough of IT. He and his political managers strongly feel that various forces of power play are ganging up fast to destabilize their government and the time has come to confront them with a better game plan.

By regularly attending the national assembly sittings since commencement of the general discussion on budgetary proposals last Friday, Nawaz Sharif seems conceding that he cannot afford being complacent about his numerical edge in the national assembly. He needs to supervise some potent moves, personally, to furnish the appearances of impregnability about his government, although without being too overt about it.

The assembly proceedings of the past two days have also showed that the PML-N and its political managers seriously acknowledge Imran Khan and his PTI as the main threat. And they must be checked. Omar Ayub Khan took the lead in this respect Wednesday by delivering an unusually blistering speech. Thursday was the turn of Mian Abdul Mannan.

Mannan had once been just a low-profile leader of Punjab-based retailers. After switching to fulltime politics in the mid 1990s, however, he gradually became a hot favorite of the Sharifs for taking on their political opponents with reckless use of the colorful street language. Mannan fully employed his venomous tongue Thursday to stir unease among PTI backbenchers. Although perpetually yelling at him, the youthful backbenchers also seemed clueless. They could just not find means to stop the volley of scathing remarks against their leaders that he kept passing in delirious fits.

I could yet not figure out as to why. But the PTI’s corporate wizard, Asad Umer, was certainly an obvious target of Mannan. Without naming Umer, he laughed at “concerns this habitual resident of five-star hotels who hates to travel in ordinary cars, keeps expressing to pretend empathy for the miserable wretched of the earth.”

Mannan even went to the extent of being too personal about the career path of Asad Umer. He claimed, “This wizard was exclusively responsible for pushing an otherwise highly successful multinational to unbearable financial losses. With such a remarkable history, he must think twice before criticizing the economic policies of our government,” thundered Mannan with feigned contempt.

It is interesting that both on Thursday and the day before, Ishaq Dar took the floor to announce and elaborate some feel-good stories. Nawaz Sharif visibly encourages him to tell these stories. On Wednesday, the finance minister proudly told us as to how World Bank had finally approved a big loan for the construction of Dasu Dam. Far more important for Dar, however, was to project this approval as “the US support to our government.” Thursday, he spoke for long to assure us that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves were increasing with an amazing speed.

If the vigorous PML-N types appear engaging the PTI backbenchers in vicious parliamentary battles, Mehmood Khan Achakzai took the burden of daring the extra-parliamentary forces for a showdown. The Pushtun nationalist from Balochistan is a diehard supporter of democratic polity. Cutting across the party divide, many sitting in this house genuinely admire his lifelong commitment and the struggle he waged for years for standing by his ideals.

You had no choice but to trust this highly experienced political worker, when he claimed that multiple forces were ganging up against elected politicians and institutions. Although he forewarned another assault on democratic setup “would lead to breakup of the country,” Mehmood Khan strongly believed that “two Sharifs, Nawaz and Raheel, can still prevent the sinister games by fast and sincerely coming on the same page.” But before pushing them on the same page, “all politicians must unite in support of the democratic system.”

Although too firm and consistent with his pro-democracy ideas, Mehmood Khan always adopts soft and polite tone and words to express them in parliament. Thursday sounded astonishingly different. Achakzai was rather too derisive in loudly wondering as to “who is this person who I have heard appealing to the Army through a TV screen the other day that it should take full control of the Islamabad Airport on June 23.”

Mehmud Khan was obviously referring to Allama Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri, who had announced he will land in Pakistan on this date to launch a revolutionary movement. Without mincing words, the Pushtun nationalist directly addressed Nawaz Sharif to find out as to “who has appointed this person as the Supreme Commander of our forces? How can he dare ask the Army to take control of the Islamabad Airport to ensure his safe landing?” Tahir-ul-Qadri must think twice before landing in Islamabad after this speech of Achakzai, I must conclude.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2014.