Daily Times

Blow hot blow cold, good cop bad cop, defiance and compliance. If these phrases come to mind while witnessing the ruling party’s recent meandering, you are equally confused like many others. The murky picture and incomprehensible scenario is painted and being presented by design. The ruling party is resisting like an opposition. This is extremely odd and unusual. Being unique and extraordinary are some of the traits we so often boast about. How could a sitting government behave with such duality and be able to pull it off?

The easy answer is that extraordinary circumstances call for some extraordinary measures. How often have we seen a government in office having its third time elected Prime Minister dismissed on extremely narrow technical grounds? The victimhood narrative is on. The incumbents are peddling it for several months now. Chances are that this will be carried with vigour to the polls to en-cash the sympathy factor. This is the primary objective. The former Premier and his daughter along with other notable party leaders have been driving this message home to their voters. A concerted effort is being made to imprint this message so the battleground province, Punjab remains intact.

Perhaps after the unceremonious ouster, the ‘lion’ after licking the wounds, has decided to get even. As they say, a wounded lion becomes more lethal. Our homegrown Lion in his rage is charging in all directions. Trying to raise a huge hue and cry about a major conspiracy against him and conveying a venomous message to the unseen and the ones who handed him the dismissal.

NA-120 by-poll has added another headache to the woes of the incumbents, i.e. the mainstreamed and dry-cleaned jihadi outfits in the election mix. These were the traditional supporters of PML-N, now threatening to challenge it on its home ground

The oft-repeated saying that Pakistan Muslim League — Nawaz (PML-N) is its own worst enemy, still holds true to this day. With bloopers every other day from rank and file and the leadership on one thing or the other, it is hogging air time for all the wrong reasons.

The close NA-120 win has added another headache to the incumbents i.e. the mainstreamed and dry cleaned, re-branded religio-fascist and jihadi outfits in the election mix. These were the traditional supporters of PML-N, now threatening to challenge it on its home ground. The ruling party’s members have complained that these elements have been deliberately planted to dent and divide its vote bank.

Perhaps the recently re-elected President of PML-N, Nawaz Sharif has realised that reverting to its core base of conservatives will give him maximum electoral gains in the upcoming elections.

The son in law, of the former Premier, who by sheer luck of this nation, happens to be a lawmaker as well, has made some highly bigoted remarks against a persecuted minority, on the floor of the house. Any reasonable person would ask, why such stupidity at such troubled times. Unlike others who would focus on the absurdity of the former Captain and his unrestrained reverence and adoration for Mumtaz Qadri, the convicted and executed murderer of former Governor Taseer, we would try to touch on the impetus behind this manufactured drama.

To such curious minds, there is a method to such madness and it is being done to achieve multiple benefits. The deliberate reference towards the institutions of the armed forces and judiciary is to cast a shadow of doubt towards those areas. The two unnamed adversaries that former Prime Minister and his daughter try to target between the lines in their rhetorical speeches.

It is an extremely fable game to cast a doubt against the integrity of these institutions, based on religious leanings of some of their members. Simply put, it is playing with fire. In the very same breath, the bigoted son in law is signaling to the religio-fascists and the former jihadis that his party has not compromised with its staunch conservative ideals. Rather than becoming a tool of useless vote division, they should seek their friends in the corridors of power.

The newly-appointed Foreign Minister, who won accolades here at home, for his performance in the US, at the Asia Society and US Institute of Peace is another basket case worthy of mentioning. The gentleman earned cheers for his remarks about how US was completely wrong in devising its Afghanistan policy and it should detach Pakistan from Afghanistan, while setting its future goals and so on and so forth.

At the same venue, the respected FM acknowledged, the presence of certain networks that earn the ire of the US, on this side of the border. After that candid admission, he also pleaded that Pakistan needed time on its own terms, to eradicate such networks. He impressed upon the audience abroad that he reminisced the once so tolerant Pakistan, ruined by US-funded Afghan jihad of the 80s.

Here at home, when a TV talk show host questioned him about the bizarre stance of the royal son in law, the otherwise outspoken FM, very slyly sided with Captain (Retired) Safdar. To further solidify his personal credentials, he took a religious swipe at the same community. This is the Foreign Minister of the entire country, which happens to be diverse in all respects. Such bigoted and extremist views in the assembly or on the air, stream live to the entire world. To his credit, at least he was honest enough to admit that, in this day and age the world is watching us 24/7 and we will not be able to conceal anything, any longer, even if we wanted to.

The writer is a Pakistani-US mortgage banker. He can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets @dasghar

Published in Daily Times, October 13^th 2017.