The Roundup: Torrid round of firefighting amid rising tensions

KARACHI:

It’s been a hot summer politically for the ruling party, and the last week was dominated by continued firefighting.

Even former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who is no stranger to embattlement, got an opportunity on Monday to take a shot at the incumbents’ gathering plight, voicing his amusement at how the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had everything that his government didn’t – a clear majority in parliament and a sedate judiciary – yet it seemed to be struggling as much.

Gratuitous taunting aside, the former premier has a point. It really is amazing how it has gone south so fast for a government that had so much going for it.

For one, even the fallout between Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar and the party’s top brass, which was supposedly resolved the week before, seems far from over. This week saw at least two long meetings between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Nisar – on Tuesday and Friday – at least one of which was attended by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif (who played mediator between the interior minister and the premier the week prior). Interestingly, the meeting on Friday between Nisar and Nawaz was followed by a meeting of the entire federal cabinet – which, the interior minister did not attend despite already being with the premier just before.

Earlier on Monday, Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Khursheed Shah held a meeting with the government on issues that are usually handled by Nisar. But instead of him it was Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who really has nothing to do with such matters, in attendance.

Something has to give in coming days, perhaps this coming week. The buzz suggests it will come in the form of a change in the defence minister. But the really hushed whispers suggest that it will come in the form of a certain someone’s long awaited flight out of Pakistan. The government needs its interior minister with his head in the game, and whatever it is that is still bothering him needs to be addressed given the testing times coming up in the build-up to an increasingly-hostile Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) long march.

With the top brass mired in internal matters, Imran Khan’s belligerence over election rigging has unsettled those tasked to handle it in the ruling party.

The PTI chief’s assault on former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry for being a part of the conspiracy to rig the 2013 elections is reportedly going to be met with a legal response from the former chief adjudicator. Any way you look at it, a battle with Chaudhry on the influential former chief justice’s home turf, the courts, is something that could be very problematic for Imran and the PTI. While that ought to have been enough of a response, another front was opened on Monday.

On Monday, Chaudhry’s son, Arsalan Iftikhar, visited the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to gather information on Imran for a disqualification reference he wants to file against the PTI chief for not being “sadiq and amin.” It is unclear who prompted Arsalan to take this step – but the move to drag the PTI chief’s personal life into this doesn’t have the feel of being conjured by the camp of a seasoned judicial giant. Political motivation – from middle-tier management – is written all over this ill-conceived move, even though Arsalan has insisted that there is no political push from behind the scenes. Defaming Imran will not help clear his father’s name; it only drags it through the political mud.

This will only help the PTI, really – keeping the issue out of the courts, where the PTI had nothing to play with, and in the political theatre, which is in line with the party’s current strategy. As expected, the party obliged two days later, with its MNAs visiting the ECP to gather details about Nawaz Sharif and saying they would move a reference to have the premier disqualified.

The ruling party’s middle management is also conjuring up half-baked ways to counter Imran’s planned “Tsunami March” to Islamabad on August 14. On Monday, one leader tried blaming Imran for “turning a day of celebration into a day of violence” and another calling it a security risk. With such statements obviously not affecting the PTI, the government on Friday announced it would hold its own “independence day rally” on August 14 in Islamabad at D-Chowk, and has asked PTI not to “mar celebrations.” That’s a dangerously desperate move, announced too late in the day to be construed as anything but.

Another issue that continues to brew ominously for the ruling party is the inquest into the Model Town shootings that led to the death of 14 supporters of Dr Tahirul Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). A police sub-inspector spilled the beans on Friday in front of the tribunal that orders were given to the police to shoot the protestors (albeit in the legs) by none other than a superintendent of police known to be very close to Shahbaz and his administration.

The tribunal has called for transcripts of conversations between the government high-ups – including the chief minister – in the lead-up to the shooting, which could be presented today (Monday). Remember that officials of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies are also a part of this tribunal, and it’s their credibility at stake. They, too, have been asked for reports this week – and we could get a better idea how this will play out.

Meanwhile, the PTI isn’t committing to the Q-PAT alliance, but still wants their support for its cause in case it needs backup. Clearly, they are trending in opposite directions on the political futures market – but to keep communication open, Shah Mehmood Qureshi visited the Q’s Chaudhry brothers on Tuesday – but still refused to commit to an alliance.

Dr Qadri was not a part of that meeting, and the Chaudhry brothers met him separately the same day. Dr Qadri doesn’t seem too happy with Imran since PTI and its supporters were absent from the doctor’s homecoming last month. Two days after the meetings, the PAT chief came out with a strange statement at a Lahore presser on Thursday that his movement was “much bigger” than Imran’s tsunami and that Imran’s cause was just a small part of the “revolution.”

Regardless, the government will have its hands full in again in the coming week, with temperatures expected to continue to soar.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2014.