Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party stands for democracy, it will never ditch it, do and die to sustain it and do everything within its means to blunt the onslaught against democracy and Pakistan’s constitution. Indeed brave words of a young man who has risen to his present height as the leader of perhaps only federal party not because he played cricket, won cups and indulged in fun and frolic by night. From his childhood to this day his has been a life of an ongoing struggle.

Most of his twenty years until his mother’s assassination in 2007 Bilawal had just seen sufferings, father languishing in jail of either Nawaz Sharif or General Pervez Musharraf, his mother running from one court to another or living in exile. Imran Khan, Nawaz Sharif and his ‘daring’ daughter would have preferred to quit than to go through hell that Bilawal went through, ultimate being the cold-bloodied murder of his mother.

MNS buckled in to GPM when he passed a few days in isolation in Attack Fort, signed the infamous ‘Maafee Nama brokered by his Saudi and American masters and took royal flight to Saudi Arabia with lock, stock and barrel except his buffalos, to the Saror Palace.

His unannounced departure made some of his confidantes sulk in a anger for being left behind in the cold. One of them was his Finance Minister and trusted accountant — Ishaq Dar. Out of his desperation he spilled the beans before the NAB in a 50-page confessional statement regarding the mega financial wheeling dealings he did for his PM and his family.

Charter of Democracy was the brainchild of martyred Benazir Bhutto to secure and salvage Pakistan from dictatorship and to set it on road to developing a formidable democracy that could withstand any subversive attack and extra-constitutional interventions like four previous ones by Bonapartist generals

PPP is perhaps the only political party that has established its democratic and left of the centre credentials by offering sacrifices in blood of its top leaders besides thousands of its workers who relentlessly filled the jails, bore whips on their backs and suffered other totalitarian afflictions under military dictators — one worse than the previous. ANP followed in its footsteps and can be counted as a reliable partner in shielding current threats to democracy.

PML-N or XYZ — give any name to rank opportunists or sunshine politicians — it was this party — in one form or the other-that was always available to the establishment to subvert or scuttle democracy. It has been in power for over 30 years — only to master the art of thievery and digging its own grave by its miscalculations, misjudgements, machinations, intrigues, over confident of its links with the military establishment, playing one against the other and always willing to be available to the powers that be to upset applecart of democracy.

Charter of Democracy was the brainchild of martyred Benazir Bhutto to secure and salvage Pakistan from dictatorship and to set it on road to developing a formidable democracy that could withstand any subversive attack and extra-constitutional interventions like four previous ones by Bonapartist generals. PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif was convinced by her and brought around to joining hands with her to consolidate democratic struggle to oust General Pervez Musharraf.

Signing of Charter of democracy by the two major parties was a clear message of defiance to General Musharraf to get ready to pack up, democracy is on its way back. Indeed, the wily dictator was out maneuvered at his own game, every move that he made was check mated. He would not allow Bhutto to return home, she did in a blood bath engineered by GPM and his conspirators assigned by him to kill her. She escaped but later died in the second attempt executed by GPM’s hired marksmen on December 27, 2007.

Despite having eliminated Bhutto — his only threat — GPM could not stay in power for long, elections had to be held, PPPP won them, formed the government, and showed the door to the dictator under threat of impeachment. However, no sooner things seem moving forward PML-N — initially a coalition partner in PPPP government and ruling Punjab — started stabbing it in the back and betraying its commitment to Charter of Democracy.

Instead of supporting President Asif Zardari in sustaining democracy, its leaders openly opposed him and instead of the much touted IK’s ‘umpire’s finger’, Supreme Court Chief Justice Mr Iftikhar Choudhry appeared for Nawaz Sharif as a Jinn to carry out his orders to make governance impossible. His Chief Minister in Punjab would threaten Zardari to drag him by his hair in the streets of Lahore. Bilawal Bhutto rightly underscored the fact that ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif took certain controversial steps during his tenure that have harmed the essence of democracy.

However, Bilawal’s assurance is timely that: “We cannot support unconstitutional steps. PPP has always been pro-people. Our founding principle is that people are the source of all power,” he said, adding that the issue is that “people are either with democracy or with corruption; being the grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and son of Benazir Bhutto, I will be siding with democracy.”

PML-N Interior Minister Rao Ahsan Iqbal is seeing nightmares in day time. He says ‘Hidden hands’ are pushing country towards democratic instability. The other day he was hallucinating about a mysterious Troika conjuring civil-military clash. Earlier when Nawaz Sharif was PM, he and his ministers had lost their cool. They and his firebrand daughter — never let go any opportunity to take a dig at the judiciary and indirectly at the military but in a way that made who the target was obvious.

In this fearsome environment when PML-Nwallas are hearing the sound of marching boots and martial music ‘Faujayeen Fauja, Maujiayee Maujan’.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto told in a recent interview that his party will not tolerate any “technocratic or national government setup.” I agree with him that PML-N is misleading the nation by inferring to Fauji intervention when Army Chief General Bajwa has categorically said martial law is not on the cards and that his institution stands steadfast by democracy, rule of law, constitutionalism and equal respect to all state institutions. Indeed, BBZ is right that PML-Nwallas are overplaying their hand. It seems they are deliberately trying to provoke the Praetorian institution to get them out and get in to make ‘Nawaz Shaheede-e-Jamhoriet’.

The writer is the former High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK and a veteran jouranlist

Published in Daily Times, November 1^st 2017.