Daily Times

Nisar is unhappy at the way he is being treated by his friend Nawaz. He seems especially hurt at losing the coveted position of Nawaz Sharif’s closest confidante.

But why would Nawaz cast off Nisar and that too at a time when the ship carrying him and his party seems to have been caught up in what appears to be a perfect storm?

Of course since his friend’s ouster from office, Nisar has been advising him publicly to avoid taking a confrontational position. What is wrong with this advice? Sounds like most sensible under the circumstances. More so in the context of what has been happening since Nawaz was disqualified.

It is difficult to believe that Maryam Nawaz or Nawaz Sharif’s new ‘courtiers’ were instrumental in ousting Nisar from his coveted position.

Or perhaps Nisar sensing the looming end has decided to jump ship?

But perhaps one could fathom the mystery by reading between the following lines.

Nawaz and Nisar have enjoyed close friendship since the two rose to political prominence in early 1980s under the guardianship of President General Ziaul Haq.

During the 1990s, when Nawaz and Benazir were taking turns in the power corridors, of course at the pleasure of ‘you-know-who’, Nisar and Nawaz seemed to have shared what at that time had seemed like pathological hatred for the PPP. Nawaz, however, seemed to have outgrown this hatred while in exile signing subsequently in May 2006 the Charter of Democracy with Benazir Bhutto who was also in exile at the time

And from a distance it had often seemed as if Nisar was leading the leader rather than the other way around as he seemed to wield a lot of political influence over Nawaz.

During the 1990s when Nawaz and Benazir were taking turns in the power corridors, of course at the pleasure of ‘you-know-who’, Nisar and Nawaz seemed to have shared what at that time had seemed like pathological hatred for the PPP. Nawaz, however, seemed to have outgrown this hatred while in exile signing subsequently in May 2006 the Charter of Democracy with Benazir Bhutto who was also in exile at the time.

Still one vividly recalls the way Nisar, using the very first opportunity he had had to lead the leader once again, had led Nawaz literally by his nose out of the ARD and into the APDM immediately following the conclusion of PMLN convened London APC in mid-2007.

His purpose? Seemingly to get Nawaz out of an alliance led by a left-of-centre PPP and into one led by a right-of-centre JI-JUI-PTI conglomerate.

And when during President Zardari’s tenure the Memogate scandal hit the headlines, it was perhaps again on the advice of Nisar that Nawaz, the lawyer went and joined the prosecution team. He now regrets the move.

It was again his pathological hatred of the PPP perhaps that had moved Nisar to almost destroy the parliamentary unity that the elected members had put up in August 2014 in the face of what was being alleged to be an establishment sponsored sit-in in the Red-Zone by PTI and PAT.

Right when everything was going great inside the Parliament House as the sit-in outside was getting tiresome for both the participants as well as the spectators, suddenly a war of words broke out between Nisar and PPP’s Aitzaz, provoked seemingly deliberately by the former. As the two went for each other’s political jugular the fresh-out-of-oven unity among the self-styled democratic forces was pushed too close to the cliff. It was touch and go. Had it not been for a firm shut up call from Nawaz to Nisar, the latter would have succeeded in accomplishing what he had but almost succeeded by letting the Imran-Tahirul Qadri duo enter the Red Zone without any let or hindrance while making it appear as if the protestors had forced their way into the sensitive area despite his best efforts.

Next, when things had settled down Nisar went after the PPP government in Sindh using all the firepower that a federal interior minister wields but employing the Rangers to mislead the victims into believing they were being hounded by the Army.

He resorted to crass witch hunting, frequently threatening the PPP leadership with making public confession videos of those arrested on hearsay corruption charges. So much so that he had Dr. Asim Hussain, one of the closest friends of former President Asif Ali Zardari arrested on trumped up terrorism charges. Next, the case of model Ayan Ali was made to appear as if the alleged currency smuggling episode was directly linked to the top PPP leadership.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Islamabad. He served as the Executive Editor of Express Tribune until 2014

Published in Daily Times, March 29^th 2018.