The Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri show, or as my friend Ejaz Haider puts it, the “Lucky Irani Circus”, finally made it to where it wanted to be in the first place and where the Nawaz regime did not want it at any time — at the D-Square in front of the Parliament. While it was a massive crowd, the numbers do not matter. The emotions of the men, women and children who braved both the artificial and natural odds to follow their leaders to their date with destiny, did. Contrary to the government-fed propaganda, most of our renowned TV anchors were parroting ad nauseam, the PTI followers remained true and faithful. Not politically extensive or nationwide as Imran Khan’s and Tahirul Qadri’s flock in Islamabad numbered far more. His supporters’ remarkable capacity to remain resolute with resilience and remarkable discipline, belies political reckoning. Make no mistake, the Sharifs underestimated Tahirul Qadri’s political nuisance value. Alongside Imran, he may well bring down their government.
Any strategy is nonsense until it is successful. By converging in front of the Parliament by midnight, give and take a little, the two columns have become a constitutional headache of some proportion for the government. It will take a Houdini Act for the Sharif brothers to get out of this one, including shutting up the likes of Pervez Rasheed, Saad Rafique and Marvi Memon for some time (fortunately for the Sharifs, Khawaja Asif has become a born-again khaki fan recently). One feels sorry for Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, as the government’s point man for the bluff and double bluff the regime was attempting, he must be embarrassed but thankful that the police did not do another Model Town. Despite the Sharif regime’s insinuations about the Army backing them to the hilt and Nawaz Sharif using every photo-op moment with General Raheel Sharif, the army failed to come to the party.
That the regime has turned repeatedly to the army chief recently by itself conveys the seismic shift in the political power game. What was said in the private conversation when Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan flew into Rawalpindi on June 12 to see the army chief, can only be repeated by those who participated in it. One can safely surmise a polite but firm advice to avoid confrontation (and bloodshed) by allowing the two columns starting from Lahore on their “Long March” to exercise their democratic right of protest.
From the professional vibes one gets from the present lot in the senior military hierarchy, the army has no intention of taking over. However given the broken promises of the Nawaz regime and the penchant of some of their functionaries to shamelessly badmouth the uniform day in and day out, the khakis are probably letting the Sharifs stew in their own self-created problems when the chips are down, unfortunately so for the Sharifs (and their kith and kin in govt). With the police refusing to brutalise the assembled protestors, many of them women and children on live TV, the writ of the government, if not the state, collapsed. Once such authority is shown to be a bluff and such a bluff is called, it is almost impossible to restore the credibility of such authority.
The Pakistan Ex-Servicemen’s Association (PESA) called for “an immediate dissolution of assemblies, formation of a constitutional caretaker government, electoral reforms and appointment of an independent Election Commission before fresh elections are held. The current crisis in the country has exposed cracks, failings and vulnerabilities in Pakistan’s constitutional democracy. It is time for the government to take initiative and resolve the crisis through political and constitutional means avoiding the use of force”. Expressing grave concern that the political leaders had failed to rise above party affiliations at the cost of the country’s interests, the ex-servicemen noted that enough doubts had been raised regarding the fairness of elections, calling for “dissolution of assemblies, formation of a constitutional government, electoral reforms and appointment of an independent election commission before fresh elections are held.” Past midnight of the same day, the ISPR chief, Major General Asim Bajwa, tweeted a statement broadly agreeing with the feelings of his retired khaki colleagues, “The situation requires patience, wisdom and sagacity from all stakeholders to resolve prevailing impasse through meaningful dialogue in larger national and public interest.”
Nobody wants democracy to be derailed but neither can democracy persist in this present form. The protestors in front of the Parliament are going nowhere unless most of their demands are met, the Sharifs must face ground reality. These last seven days have exposed our present facade of democracy for what it really is, a purchasable commodity available to the highest bidder. In absence of the grassroots governance essential at the community level for democracy to function effectively, the individual stakeholder has no place. Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri are simply articulating the desire of the people of Pakistan, the Constitution of Pakistan must be an effective document protecting the fundamental rights of the people, not a meaningless paper that is held aloft by the greedy and selfish to perpetuate their own rule while riding roughshod over the basic rights and aspirations of the citizens. Such a document is not worth the paper it is written on.
The Nawaz regime is now only a few miles from midnight.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2014.
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COMMENTS (26)
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@Syed Mazhar:
The 'establishment' includes the Military, The Feudals and sections of the Civil bureaucracy and some Evergreen Politicians..
As for evidence, name one Government barring the last PPP Government which was voted out of office by the people of Pakistan. In Air Marshal Asghar Khan's case, it has already been established that the Army specially the ISI interferes with the political process. If you want one example of Evergreen Politician just take a close look at Sheikh Rasheed.
Now, coming to the Feudal elements, Have you ever heard IK promising land reforms. Does he talk about giving land to the tiller? Most Revolutions of the world, The French, The Russian and the Chinese included, have achieved land reforms.
Now, tell me is it echoing in the empty spaces of the first floor.
@Khushab wala: It appears you are angry at missing a piece of pie. I am also thankful that you did not blame these ex-servicemen for taking part in local crimes and confined them to "Part Time service in foriegn service". My dear Sir, I invite you at my expense to visit a site of conflict; Siachen, Waziristan or elsewhere. It is easy to sit in your airconditioned rooms sipping at a cool one and pass comments on matters about which you have no practical experience. Muaf karo baba!
@observer: Are you sure what do you mean by Establishment!! This is in fact a favourite and oft repeated slogan of those who shift even the blame of their ill conceived births on Establishment. Or they are absolutely ignorant but can't live without saying anything which, due to vacuum in their upper chambers has to be weightless, meaningless and wortless. If you are so enlightened and bold, why don't you say few names and give evidence!
@Ghulam Nabi Malik: These same "retired" servicemen also work part time. When needed, by foreign rulers. Such as crushing uprisings in Bahrain,...supplying $1.5 billion in weapons and training to ISIS and other extremists, in Syria, Iraq,... courtesy of Saudia.
The 'Establishment' in Pakistan does not like the idea of Governments being formed and being sent out of office with no control over the process. The present crisis is the result of Establishment's attempt at reasserting their sole right of Government formation and dissolution. The unfortunate part for the Establishment is that their biggest constituency- The Army, is is no position to play a more direct role. The drama will end with the Establishment taking control of Foreign and Security Policies. Imran, Qadri combine will be forced to go home empty handed.
@KHK: The people of pakistan should decide through free, fair and transparent elections, not through Gullu, Pomi and now Billoo butt elections. Its such a shame that educated people are defending these so called "free and fair" elections. No one has been held acountable for casting multiple votes or stuffing ballott boxes. Despite the fact that teh culprits have left their finger prints at teh crime scene, we in the 21st century cannot identify the finger prints. tariq malik who said he could was removed from the job. What more evidence do you need. Najam Sethi , CJ Iftikhar Ch, Justice ramday, Justice Kayani, all have received their share in one way or the other but you call them free and fair.
@Ghulam Nabi Malik: I am not in favour of teh Army takeover but blaming everything on Ex servicemen is completelt unjustified and unfair. Army may have a lot of say in teh foreign policy, but who is asking these politicians to make billions by corruption. Has Army stopped them from de-politicising the police, stremgthen education, improve health ect etc. If these politicians cannot conrol the police, how can you expect them to make the generals subservients. They lack moral authority to start with. IK has the moral authority and has no politicial baggage. Thats exactly the reason he managed to de-politicise the police in KP and has already shown drastic improvements in anti corruption, health, education and land
You are surely not a Friend or not a well wisher of Pakistan. Utter disgrace to a State of Pakistan, you are still writing this kind of article
@KHK: What does the constitution of 1973 say about rigged elections !!!
What is the guarantee that new elections will be held with in 60 or 90 days (according to act) on the basis of new reformed electoral system. Caretaker government is always a dummy, actual power is in the hand of 'Khakis'.
Those criticising Mr. Sehgal's point of view are in fact ignorant and have not followed his columns over a period of time. I am an ardent newspaper reader for nearly half a century now and admire the bold and forthright comments of Mr. Sehgal purely on merit. I haven't found the analysis in any way biased and prejudiced. Some of the comments above have accused the Khakis as perpetrators of all evils brought to Pakistan. While definitely not in favour of an undemocratic system, I humbly ask them two questions; One: look inside yourselves honestly and see which eras in country's history have been stable and prosperous. Secondly, haven't the politicians themselves beseeching Army to step in and overthrow the governments of their opponents, BB and NS included! If someone disagrees I can quote dates with clippings of print media. In my humble opinion, instead of casting aspersions on the author, we should see the logic of his point and wisdom of his suggestions. I am a common citizen of Pakistan and my simple wishes include my basic requirements met in a peaceful environment. I don't want to be pushed around when minions of an MNA or MPA wielding variety of weapons harass me at traffic light to move aside so that (Dis)honourable (so called) representative of people should not be hindered or shut down my business for hours if it (unfortunately) happens to be enroute the cavalcades of the (so called and utterly damnable) VVIPs. I may not agree with all of Imran or Qadri's demands or actions but concede this much, for heaven's sake, they are carrying along common citizens of Pakistan
Mr Seghal`s article is not about protecting any one group or individual, but the country is in a mess because we fail to face facts & ground realities, which Mr Seghal has tried to point out. Mr Sehgal is not against democracy, but the follies that our politicians commit only just to protect their own self-interest is evident to all & sundry, yet we only know how to criticize, instead of accepting the weaknesses we face day in & day out & force our lawmakers to follow that sacred document called " Constitution " which is always referred to when in trouble, but forget to adhere to 41 articles which till today remain to be implemented.
Just to protect themselves, they inserted 19 & 20th amendment. Is this not about protecting individual stakeholder ?
@Ghulam Nabi Malik: Agree 100%.
Please go and taste the grass roots, democracy at that level would be no different than that at the top. What we see our the values of our society in display everywhere whether in the statement of the ex serviceman, the working of our legislatures and governments, the the practices at the grass root level by grass root leaders, or the circus we see in Islamabad, or the writings of Mr Saigol
Mr Sehgal! you are also an ex-serviceman. and till which time this esprit de corps would continue? We are not shudars. It is for people of Pakistan to decide not a mob, how large it is. 1973 constitution is agreed by all the 4 provinces and that cannot and must not be abrogated at the whims of a few Punjabis.
Like servicemen society, Ikram Sehgal's analysis is flawed. None of these ex-servicemen can win a councillor seat in election but they do not stop sermonising us about the faults of democratic functioning. These are the people who have pushed the country to this stage and fathered all the 'bad eggs' they hold villain in present scenario. May I request them to avail their hefty post retirement benefits and posh bungalows and leave the nation to sort out the democratic hiccups it is encountering towards its goal of democratic evolutionary process. They have played their innings and contributed substantially towards the mess we find ourselves in.
It's no surprise to see extremism and impatience seething from every strata of our society when you see the so called intellectuals propagating the worthlessness of constitution, just because supposedly some politicians are greedy. If authors logic holds ground, then we must throw out our teachers from schools because the failed to educate generations of Pakistanis. We must also consider each Pakistani parent useless for not instilling values in their children. But most importantly then, we must eradicate our founding fathers from history books because Pakistan never became the dream which they predicted. In short, just like a little child, if something doesn't conform to our whims, consider it "worth the piece of paper it is written on". How can a nation which can barely understand the importance civic "duties" and "responsibilities", demand fundamental "rights"?
Democracy is synonymous of welfare,service and protection of the rights of people.Labeling democracy to monarchy is the art well learned by the rulers of weak states like Pakistan.Kith and kin of the rulers are crushing our future,reality is sour and extremely difficult to taste.Pakistan needs leaders with vision and ability to take us out from the ebb of darkness.Politcs should not be changed to poly tricks and corporate strategies are not getting any good to the poor masses.Slash the rates of basic commodities and utilities and do not try to confuse the people with change of regime as end of democracy. ' King is dead ,long live the king'
" The Nawaz regime is now only a few miles from midnight.' ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ only a few hours from midnight and The Nawaz regime is now only a few miles from islamabad. Dear Editor r u there?
"It is time for the government to take initiative and resolve the crisis through political and constitutional means avoiding the use of force." Well said, I could have not agreed with you more. Always a thought provoking and sensible editorials. Thank you for serving the nation.
Is it fashionable to bad mouth urdu-medium types as this analyst seems to enjoy (thanks to his TV friend).
The murder of 12 people in Lahore - carried out by a police force that was clearly operating under a political mandate (Gulloo Butt leading sections of the police force ?).
By ignoring things like this these analysts become a part of the problem.
PTI and PAT are just getting exposed and publicly shamed as stooges of Agencies. PML(N) will keep marching ahead. 30000 people cannot make the 200 million people hostage to their illegal and unconstitutional demands.
Yes!!! Freedom at Midnight.
Looks like the khaki's drama of gaining their political ground and saving mush is going to succeed, thanks to agents Qadri and Imran
Very well said Sir. And shame on those TV anchors who have bought into and then perpetuated the falsity of this struggle being one between democracy and anti-democracy. You can't let a cancerous system go on in the name of a "derailment" threat...