Daily Times

Never a dull moment in the Promised Land. The Prime Minister took his oath and among many people who went to congratulate him was one dubbed as the ‘Rebel’. For old time’s sake, the rebel said a few words of respect towards his former leader and the madness ensued as usual.

May God bless Habib Jalib, the legendary poet who along with another iconic poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, rendered some great works in the dark days of the mega dictator, Ziaul Haq. Jalib’s poem Main Baghi Hoon (I am a rebel), is a truly immortal classic, a very moving, passionate and powerful rendition against the dark rule of the aforementioned general.

To jog some waning memories, when the Prime Minister along with his family members was dispatched to the Suroor Palace of the holy land by another tin pot dictator, there were some people from his party left hanging with the short end of the stick. Javed Hashmi aka Rebel was one of those few. In 2003, he was arrested for inciting mutiny against the ruler in Pakistan, convicted and sentenced the following year on charges of mutiny, defamation and forgery for 23 years. Not to forget that during his incarceration, Mr Hashmi penned a book, which earned him the nickname of the rebel.

In 2008, Hashmi, following his formal leader’s advice, won three seats of the National Assembly from Rawalpindi, yet refused to take oath from his tormentor, who ironically was still the president of Pakistan. What transpired from there on and how he felt snubbed by his former leader is a pointless discussion. He jumped ship in 2011 and joined the party of change, the PTI.

So the same party of change is incensed now and his voters and supporters launched a mutiny of sorts against him. How dare he call his former leader a leader, etc. For the over-passionate ones of the PTI it is unacceptable to accept that Mr Sharif is their leader too. Yes, as unbearable as it may sound to them, the man in the saddle is Mr Sharif, and yes, the leader of the entire country. Much like President George W Bush, who I vehemently disapproved of, yet at the end of the day, he was my president too. Imran Khan’s cult needs to smell the fragrant brew of this coffee and realise that democracy demands respect of the will of the majority. But as they say, the change party is unwilling to change. All this is way too new for some novice politicos, who are learning their ABCDs along the way.

One only feels the pain of the rebel, who in the past had disagreed with his former party on several occasions, but here it is not business as usual. Mr Hashmi lost his rebellious spirit, so to speak, and had to apologise and retract his statement calling the PM his leader of yesterday and perhaps today.

While we are on the subject of rebels, the party of change lost a long term female member, who felt that she was sidelined by the new sycophant members surrounding Mr Khan. One can feel her pain too, as she relinquished her US citizenship for the sake of her party, but to her dismay, she was not offered a seat in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The lady has to go to the US embassy now to request a visit visa to meet her family members residing in the US. So the cracks have started to emerge in the change party as well. So goes the tale.

I can only assume that the respected female member has the best of intentions in mind, but it was rather ironic that she was reportedly asking why a domicile of KP could not be issued to her. It was done in the past by General Pervez Musharraf for another female minister in his glorious times. With utmost respect to the respected female member, comparing your predicament and drawing a parallel with Musharraf’s times in Mr Khan’s party under Mr Sharif’s administration is quite a stretch. I am afraid, a futile one though.

One gets a few snickers here and there when one gets to read about the appointments in the newly-changed province of KP. That is change alright for everyone and for good. One of my oft-repeated lines hold true here: the more things change, the more they tend to remain the same. Speaking of the same here, isn’t it sort of funny that the president who used to address the prime minister as ‘Maulvi Nawaz Sharif’ in his charged speeches at Naudero, was the one who baptised, oops, I mean administered the oath of the prime minister?

The prime minister who played the role of friendly opposition in the previous term said yes to the man whom he criticised and despised all this while. No rebellion over there at all. As I always say, politics is a strange game. And often an amusing one too.

The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar