Daily Times

Witnessing Mian Nawaz Sharif showcasing his smiles and cricket style in a community ground in Lahore and his legislators launching a well-orchestrated flurry of freestyle wrestling fracas and kabaddi kind of kicks and drags in parliament, evidently portend the morphing of Muslim League-Nawaz into a new mantle of martial sports. The spectacle of chuckles from his chubby face and aging portly figure, conviviality with the camera crews and the spectators fostered a perception that Sharif was just refurbishing his cricket passion and prowess to pound his new upcoming ‘tsunami’ cricketer rival. He emphatically assured the audience that he could have performed much better if the media had not been there. This cue as we will soon learn was rather cryptic, contrived to be far more relevant and revealing. He fondly recalled his cricketing zeal and many readers would certainly also remember his batting sprees in the Lawrence Gardens when he used to be the chief minister, desperately bent on becoming a premier and when he actually became the premier. Being the boss, he was never required to bow, bowl or chase and return the ricocheting balls with a cutthroat swiftness. Invariably, he just used to bat at his own will and pace. An overtly obsequious and cooperative contingent of fielders, for this purpose, was meticulously selected from his favourite bureaucratic biggies and party acolytes. The saga in a way can be imagined as a maneuvered analogue to Sacha Cohen ruthlessly blasting the competitors daring to overtake him as a marathon runner in The Dictator.

Still, Sharif’s batting craze could be a commendable credential in his match against the wayward tsunami terror, touting his right to premiership while being just a bowler. Sharif, in contrast, could dangle not merely his competence as a cricketer but also his actual two terms on the job as a premier. His emphasis on cricketing, of course, was sure to take some shine off his cricketing rival, and some voters are swayed by sports stars. Implanting a cricketing dimension to his Muslim League thus seemed a pretty logical step. But Sharif being a slick operator had another stunning surprise up his sleeve. While he himself charmed the masses with his love and laurels in cricket, he almost simultaneously fielded far fiercer, freestyle fighting fiends against his rivals in parliament. The outburst of their bluster to prevent the presentation of budget proposals in parliament by freestyle wrestling and kabaddi-cum-kung fu tactics proved that his party was not deterred by being outnumbered by a majority and that they were determined to take by brute force what the masses had not given them through the ballot.

Some critics may be quick to quip that it negated the dignity, norms and prestige of parliament and rocked the very premise, principles and pillars of decency, debate, tolerance and deference to the right and opinion of the majority on which the democratic polity is founded, functions and flourishes. Even Maulana Fazlur Rehman termed it a flagrant negation of parliament. Yet the Sharifs, being the true scions and heirs of Ziaul Haq and the heftiest representatives of a martial Punjabi race, seem to have a strategy of their own to reinforce their contention with full physical force and violence. Denial of brandishing brutal force by Mian Nawaz Sharif as an instrument of enforcing his point would actually be a denial of his innate traits of a wrestling ancestry — lassi (buttermilk), paraatha (bread cooked with oil lacing), Lahori puttha macho youth and the entire experience earned in abetting the draconian acts of the most execrable and oppressive dictator. Reining the temptation to physically trample the opponents also becomes rather difficult for him when the kindred cognate extremist cliques that in a way are bound to him in a brotherhood bred and bequeathed by Zia are ravaging the country to impose their creed of perpetual contempt, coercion and slaughter. This explains the debut of his new fighting fury exhibited in parliament. A more terrifying prequel to that could be recalled in the wanton vagaries of his vanguard attacking the Supreme Court that dared confront him with a contempt case. This also explains his rather enigmatic remarks about being capable of doing much more if the media had not been there, referred to in the first paragraph. The mayhem and melee in the absence of media coverage could have turned into some fatalities.

The emergence of this new ruthless kabaddi or rather kung fu contingent in his League, superseding the growth of a relatively more glamorous and globally appealing cricket wing, similarly can be conveniently comprehended. Cricket, despite the glitz and glam generated by it, is mandated by some well-mannered and articulated rules and strictures. The players just cannot browbeat, manhandle, hurl about or impede the action of their contenders. Stricter punitive measures to squelch the scrimmage are invoked. Floating a cricket league by Sharif could also provoke a far more acerbic and embarrassing cannonade from the tsunami terror, who would have certainly taken it as an insolent incursion into his portal and stature of being a cricket champion striving to be a saviour in politics. Leaving the cricket domain to him thus could also be a facile appeasement of a rival for some likely future alliance. Cricket, notwithstanding its immense popularity in Pakistan, still smacks of its foreign origin and overtones. Considering its freestyle fury in the house, naming his party the Kung fu League would have been perhaps a more apt appellation. But this martial epithet is also tainted by the temple and Shaolin traditions and the craze for it as compared to cricket is quite limited. Kabaddi, in contrast, being congealed in Punjabi culture from times immemorial, seems a far more magnificent moniker for his League. It kindles a nationalistic flavour and also serves as a covert replay of the familiar Sharif ploy of Jaag Punjabi, jaag, teri pug noon lug gia dagh ( Rise O Punjabi as your honour has been soiled), i.e. by yielding a majority to a party from Sindh) or a reinforcement of the present topi and ajrak controversy started by Chaudhry Nisar. Kabaddi can also condone an entire array of sheer freestyle wrestling and pugilism to immobilise the rivals and thus portrays the entire personality, mood and tactics of the Nawaz League.

Formation of a kabaddi League by Nawaz would evidently also propel other political parties to scramble for the most riveting and rewarding sports emblems and epithets. Jamaat-e-Islami can, for instance, settle for rifle shooting and the JUI-F, rumoured to be amply endowed with diesel supplies, can go for car racing, reviving the thrill and ferocity of the Roman charioteers.

The writer is an academic and freelance columnist.habibpnu@yahoo.com