Daily Times

The countdown to dissolving the assemblies has begun. And Pakistan’s politicians appear to be feeling the heat.

First, there is Nawaz Sharif. The comeback kid who has refused to #Go. The deposed Prime Minister this week said that he was willing to talk to all institutions of the state and all political parties — possibly with the exception of, you know, the PPP — on issues of democracy, governance and the national interest. Provided that all remained within their “defined limits”. That he said all this to a waiting and watching media after appearing before an accountability court tells anyone all they need to know about the current climate that looms large over Pakistani politics today. For here is a man holding no public office who still believes he calls the shots.

Someone else who considers himself in a not dissimilar position is Sheikh Rasheed. Though he still has a party to officially call his own, the AML president may or may not have temporarily lost that memo. For he has come over all needy; as if not content with an ordinary electoral alliance, he is hoping that Imran Khan will show him the required commitment that remains his heart’s desire: a merger with the PTI. Which likely explains why he was so insistent that no caretaker PM can be installed unless and until Kaptaan signs off on it. Sweet.

Nevertheless, Rasheed got himself in a spot of bother this week. When he called on the Chief Justice to impose a 90-day “judicial martial law” until everyone goes ballot-boxing. After coming under fire for trying to subvert the Constitution, the AML chief was slow to clarify. What he meant, he stressed, was that the CJP ought to conduct the next general elections under the watchful eye of the Army. Which is, of course, an altogether different affair. But be that as it may, the country’s top judge was quick and right to point out that there is no constitutional provision for that most superb of oxymora. Thus it seems that the usually witty Rasheed is spending a little too much time with Khan. After all, his brother in ideological arms has been known, over the years, to commit similar missteps. Like that time back in 2011, when the PTI leader said that the party would support the Supreme Court if it asked the military to implement its verdict in the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) case and remove the PPP-led government. Just as he infamously declared two years ago that the Pakistani people would distribute sweets if the Army were to come out of the barracks; stressing that it was not the latter that represented a threat to democracy but the (then) Nawaz government. Again, sweet.

All of which leaves Pakistan where?

Unfortunately, with a political leadership across the board that is more concerned with the technicalities pertaining to the caretaker set-up than fine-tuning respective election manifestoes. There is, however, one bright light in all this. The election of Sherry Rehman to the post of Leader of the Opposition; the first woman ever to hold this post here in Pakistan. And given that it falls to the latter and the sitting PM to finalise the candidate to oversee the interim set-up — there should be no cause for undue concern. For as Margaret Thatcher once said: “In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”

Over to you, Sherry.  *

Published in Daily Times, March 24^th 2018.