Another clumsy gaffe

There are times when the government of Nawaz Sharif gets it spectacularly wrong, so wrong that it is off the wrongness scale by a country mile. The decision to appoint the president to lead the PML-N campaign in upcoming local government elections in Sindh is one of them. The last time we looked — and we did look — the president had a symbolic role, a role that transcends politics and ought to be largely decorative. Ex-president Asif Ali Zardari was lambasted on several occasions during his tenure for his political interventions, and his prime ministers were reduced to little more than nodding ornaments on the dashboard of the coach of state. It is of note that it was the PML-N that was doing much of the lambasting of Mr Zardari for overstepping his mandate — yet here we are with that very same PML-N handing the president a job for which he appears supremely unqualified.

President Mamnoon Hussain arrived at his present position in part because of his lack of substance, a tendency to remain mute on just about every matter of import and a willingness to do as he was told. There is no evidence at all of an ability to manage large-scale complex operations such as the leading of a political party campaign, which by its very nature is going to require a modicum of inevitably partisan statements from him — after all, he cannot be expected to remain silent when thrust to the political forefront as he has now been. He has also been tasked to recommend candidates to contest the elections on behalf of the PML-N. The party is seeking to improve its position in Sindh and with much of the responsibility for success or failure in the endeavour resting on the shoulders of the president, he will carry a significant burden of blame if the PML-N does not do well. The chances are 50/50 at best, and a weak president will have become weaker courtesy his own party breaching the rules. The prime minister has displayed once again his inability to rise to ‘statesman’ standards, and the crude politics of cronyism once again defines Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2015.

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