Where is Chaudhry Pervez Elahi nowadays? The former Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan has been absent from the arena for six months, and nobody seems to be missing him as if his presence had never mattered in real politics. Along with him, his brother, the former prime minister of Pakistan and the president of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has also gone AWOL, and no one, except some humourous talk shows are bothered by his absence too. Their friends do not remember them, their foes do not miss them a bit, and the electronic media — as cruel and selfish as it is — has shunned them.
Looking at the situation closely, we realise that it is not only the top leadership of the PML-Q, once known as the ‘King’s Party,’ that has been out of the picture, it is the whole party, from top to bottom, which has just disappeared completely. Just a few years ago, under the ‘dynamic’ leadership of the Chaudhry brothers, the PML-Q had emerged as the ‘real’ Muslim League, a party that led the ruling coalition in Pakistan for five years as the civilian arm of Pervez Musharraf’s dictatorial regime. Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, the then chief minister of Punjab and a close ally of the general, in order to show his fidelity to the military rule, had haughtily announced in a television interview that the PML-Q would vote in favour of General Musharraf to be re-elected as the president of Pakistan even in uniform over and over again. The ambitious leader from Gujrat was confident that once the legal hurdle regarding the eligibility of Pervez Musharraf to keep the dual offices was overcome, it would be a piece of cake for him to win the elections and take oath as the prime minister of Pakistan. To be relegated as the ‘Deputy Prime Minister’, a decorative and probably unconstitutional post with no powers and absolutely no responsibility, was not a part of his plan; and to become politically irrelevant, totally pushed out of national politics was absolutely not included in his agenda. But it has happened, and democracy has, after all, taken its revenge. At this moment, they have no party to lead and no allies to depend upon. There is only one hope for them that can reincarnate their party out of its political irrelevance or it will be completely forgotten: another coup d’état.
The second important question to ask is what happened to all the politicians who joined the Chaudhary brothers after Mian Nawaz Sharif had left the country in forced exile? One by one, slowly but surely, almost every one of them has apologized to Sharif for their unfaithfulness and reassured him about their loyalty in future. It was not easy to convince the dismayed Mian brothers initially, however, with the pressure built by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, the turncoats once again joined the ‘original’ Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) departing from the real PML-Q.
Watching their behaviour of jumping from one ship to another back and forth, it is hard to define Muslim League as a political party, be it Q, F, J, HQ, Z or N, because it is not. At best it can be defined as a syndicate of people who have joined hands temporarily in the pursuit of their personal and political interests. Typically, they come close to each other to get into power and stay together as long as they stay in power. Afterwards, as is currently the case with PML-Q, the party disintegrates and shatters into small insignificant factions. In a few years, if they see a ray of hope to seize power again, these splinter groups reunite and soon re-emerge as another Muslim League, obviously with a different suffix, which nowadays is ‘Nawaz’.
Although the PML has been hailed in Pakistan as the mother political party of the nation, what it has not been ‘revered’ enough for in history is that it is also the mother political party of more than 90 percent of the lotas (turncoats) in politics. No other political party, whether it is local or national, conservative or liberal, new or old, green or red, can beat the PML for these two magnificent achievements. In view of that, it can also be identified as a nursery for all the ambitious politicians who are waiting to get an opportunity to cling to power by providing political legitimacy to the dictators. Before Mian Nawaz Sharif, for about 40 years, PML was barren, not even able to provide a single leader with public appeal or broad based popular support, although it kept on producing multiple candidates perfectly eligible in their own assessment to become the prime minister of Pakistan.
Muslim League can also be recognised as a cult in which ‘the object of veneration’ is wealth and personal gains rather than a political ideology or public service. It is a party of landlords, aristocrats and rich and powerful industrialists who in order to expand and stabilise their business empire need politics to obtain special permits, tax exemptions, government subsidies and extra discounts. For that, they are not ready to follow the party discipline.
Many of them only believe in the leadership of their own selves and nobody else. Once they are unhappy with the party’s decision in which these objectives can be jeopardised, they are more likely to form their own itty bitty Muslim League than to comply or compromise. Which is why the number of Muslim Leagues at any given moment is more than 10, and the total count of Muslim Leagues that have existed since 1947 could easily cross three digits, a fact that is both reprehensible and disgraceful!
The writer is a US-based freelance columnist. He tweets at @KaamranHashmi and can be reached at [email protected]