The Sharif government has been weakened. Khatir Ghaznavi wrote so famously: “Go zara si baat par barsoan ke yaraaney gaye laikin itna to hua kuch loag pehchaney gaye” (years of friendship dissolved over a minor incident but served to expose some people). Dragging on this regime for another three and a half years seems difficult.
Interestingly, freedom of the press was given to Pakistan by a dictator, Pervez Musharraf. Freedom of the press is an integral part of democracy. Despite all the claims of safeguarding democracy by parliament, the Sharif government has (temporarily) closed a private television channel. The blame is passed around: the Lahore High Court did not order the channel’s closure, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) ordered it but PEMRA does not have a legitimate chief, etc. Various television anchors tend to pull down their employers. And when the conversation gets very pointed, Hamid Mir is attacked and the channel he works for is shut down. If Mubashir Lucman goes overboard, which he does more often than not, his channel is reduced to television snow.
Zardari and the Sharifs excel in verbal embellishments of their intentions and accomplishments. Pakistan owes its creation to the vision of Allama Iqbal and the tenacity of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Pakistan was largely a rural society with little infrastructure and looting and burning had left it without even pens and paper in offices.
My father, a muhajir (migrant) from what became India, loved to recount how Jawaharlal Nehru had claimed that Pakistan would last only five years. A full 67 years later, Kursheed Shah calling the word muhajir a slur is so egregious and overwhelming that it should not be dignified with comment.
As though Khursheed Shah’s inflammatory statement were not enough, Bilawal’s unparliamentary attack on Altaf Hussain caused a fall-out of MQM with the PPP-led coalition government in Sindh. Zardari had a pact with the MQM. Altaf Hussain would engage in frothing-at-the mouth lambasting of the PPP, but within, all was well. Bilawal’s thunder seems to have changed all that and Zardari will need to go on overdrive to fix this one.
The end of 70 days of a sit-in by Dr Tahirul Qadri appears overtly to have been for naught, but it must be acknowledged that, in a very short time, Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan have achieved a dramatic change in the mindset of Pakistanis. And this change is what will carry Pakistan in resetting its compass in making corruption, self-aggrandizement and usurping others’ rights criminal and justice, employment, education and a progressive economy a given.
The Sharifs seemed to be the only ones that calculated the power of Tahirul Qadri accurately. Their high anxiety caused the Model Town massacre and containers all over Lahore. Like many Pakistanis, I was deeply sceptical of the ‘crazy cleric’ but with his tenacious sit-in I too realised the vitality of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), how organised and disciplined it is and how it has educated the underserved for decades. It has now transformed from a religious organisation into a political party with an impressive following. The persona of Allama Tahirul Qadri is a notable one. He is schooled in religion as well as constitutional law. On March 2, 2010, Tahirul Qadri issued a 600-page Fatwa on Terrorism in which he said: “Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it.” This is in stark contrast to the various maulanas and maulvis in the JUI and other religious parties who, overtly and covertly, support extremism and view the US and the yahood-hunood (Jews) as enemies, rather than al Qaeda and the Taliban who have destroyed Pakistan in so many ways.
After the awakening in Pakistan forged by Tahirul Qadri and Imran Khan, especially with the concepts of economic justice and banishment of corruption, the lifestyle simplicity of Tahirul Qadri must be noted. The royalties of the many books that he has authored go to Minhajul Quran. He does not live extravagantly, tinker with billions and enjoy gourmet foods, palatial homes or four wives. He does not banish the females of the PAT behind several partitions; in fact, the participation of women in his sit-in is impressive. Pakistan is in desperate need of politicians and governance that has individual and institutional integrity.
The crowds galvanised by the PTI and PAT continue to turn out. And they promise more and more. Novel cases of individual courage are seen in Arjumand Husain and his co-passengers preventing Rehman Malik and Ramesh Kumar from boarding the PIA flight and tolerating the repercussions of employment termination. The movement of the Sharif family is severely curtailed by that annoying “go Nawaz go” chant. The moral pressure of those in the PAT and PTI rallies could steamroll the Sharifs. But before that something trivial may well become the tipping point. Go zara si baat par could seriously challenge Nawaz.
The writer specialises in addiction and family medicine. She may be contacted at [email protected]