Trusted ally’s advice to handle Lahore blowback

Sources feel whole blame for mishap was passed to Rana Sanaullah, often blamed for overacting to establish his loyalty

The MQM legislators habitually complain over the alleged heavy-handed treatment of their workers in Karachi. Doing this, they mostly blame those law-enforcing outfits responsible that apparently operate under the command of federal ministry of interior.

The national assembly was to approve allocations demanded by the same ministry on Thursday and thus the MQM legislators had a perfect opportunity to build their case through forcefully pushing some cut motions.

But diehard loyalists of the MQM preferred to provoke the treasury benches by strongly reacting to some remarks that the street hardened Khawaja Sa’ad Rafique had passed against their Quaid in an entirely different context a few days ago.

Jamshed Dasti also joined them. But simply to prove it to the world that the ‘eternal rebel’ in him remained alive and kicking. He deliberately challenged Abid Sher Ali for a physical fight. And all this produced sensational “breaking news” for 24/7 channels.

Notwithstanding these “ugly scenes,” mainstream legislators from all parties represented in this house tried hard to offer some help and advice to the government in “larger interest of protecting the (democratic) system.”

Syed Khurshid Shah, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Mehmood Khan Achakzai took turns to persuade the government that it must initiate some damage control measures to deal with possibly ominous blowback of the midnight police raid on the headquarters of Allama Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s Minhajul Quran Movement early this week.

After returning from Tajikistan, meanwhile, Prime Minister remained busy in presiding over an exhaustive meeting of close aides. His younger brother cum the Punjab Chief Minister was also present there and so was Rana Sanaullah, the ever-furious Rajput from Faisalabad, a high-profile minister of the Punjab government.

I have it from reliable sources that Nawaz Sharif betrayed his usual cool mien at the said meeting. He often shouted at aides and threw tantrums for “messing up” in the name of clearing barriers that Qadri’s devotees had erected around their headquarters. He pressed hard to find out names of the police officers considered responsible for the overkill and ‘exemplary rolling’ of their heads.

Some sources also felt as if the whole blame for the Lahore mishap was being gradually passed on to the person of Rana Sanaullah, often blamed for overacting to establish his zealous loyalty to the Sharifs.

While the government and the parliamentary opposition were keen to restore some calm and harmony on the political scene, Allama Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri was yet not willing to concede an inch. He has firmly instructed his workers not to appear before a Lahore High Court judge, assigned to find out truth and fix responsibility for the gory happenings in Lahore.

With the obvious intent of furnishing a respectable looking middle ground for Dr Qadri, Mehmud Khan Achakzai made a sincere suggestion. He demanded that the Prime Minister should formally request the Supreme Court to spare some of its judges to initiate deep probe of the matter. One or two judges from provinces other than Punjab can always find out the whole truth within a “fixed but shortest possible time limit.” Until my writing this column, the prime ministerial camp was reported to have been actively considering the said suggestion, promoted by a solid but fiercely independent ally of the PML-N. No one is yet sure as to how Allama Qadri might react to it. One thing is for sure, though, i.e., if he keeps trying to fly solo, no one except Sheikh Rashid and the Chaudhrys of Gujrat will support him eventually.

Far more conscious and guarded in this context remain Imran Khan and his PTI. Shah Mehmood Qureshi categorically announced in the house that his party would never support any movement launched with the idea of “derailing democracy for another time in this country” and he sounded sincere for obvious reasons.

In spite of keeping the government on its toes with his strident speeches and a series of spirited rallies that the PTI keeps staging in major cities all across Punjab, so far considered the invincible citadel of the Sharifs, Imran Khan does not want to demolish ‘the system’. He would rather prefer to reap the fruits of democratic polity in the end, by somehow enforcing early elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2014.