Daily Times

Wrought by hope and despair, Pakistan is going through one of the most testing times of its political history. The impunity wrapped in the myth of sacredness and veneration stands exposed. Resultantly, the black tools of repression, exercised in the name of preservation and unity, are increasingly under the arc light of criticism.

Last week resonated with a charade that blew the last restraint on maligning and weaving a litany of accusations. The cacophony was not a result of genuinely sincere concerns but rather a strategic move to subdue the bitter truth.

In this land inhabited by the ‘purest’ what matters is not what is said but the audacity of saying it. What Nawaz Sharif said in his interview to a national English daily is not a damning state secret revelation, but a repetition of what has been said by many in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The most important move was of the then PPP government’s theoretical orders, which were later blown to pieces by the powers that be, for the then DG ISI to travel to Delhi. Though the orders were not obeyed, the request should be interpreted as the civilian government’s cluelessness about the tragedy thereby conveying to the powers that be to take it upon themselves to do the explaining.

Nawaz’ interview and the direct reaction of summoning an emergency meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) and the indirect stirring of a storm through the controlled media are blatant messages from both sides. The controlling began with the shutdown of Geo news channel and after the publication of Nawaz’ interview the armoured closure was applied to the newspaper carrying it. The newspaper faces nearly 75 per cent in restricted distribution.

Nawaz’ shot in the arm was perhaps a clear message of enough was enough, alluding to skeletons in the cupboard whose discovery would neither be upheld by the people nor the world. He gave reference of the Russian and Chinese presidents who had also termed the terrorists’ infiltration unacceptable.

The government is completing its term — which is symbolically important for democracy. Once the five-year term is over, Nawaz will be unfettered whether behind bars or outside. He will continue to be a thorn in the establishment’s side

It transpired that there were indeed many skeletons in the closet of security managers that brought the country to the impasse and who are now frantically browbeating him not to make further revelations. Secondly, the establishment is bent upon sending Nawaz into the oblivion of history and is in search of finding excuses for that. Thus, the employment of the tools of perfidy, media onslaught and defections of electables from his party are part of that game

The panic reaction to Nawaz’s interview exposed much of what perhaps he wanted to. The summoning of emergency meeting of the NSC on the issue, the subsequent noise by the media and some political parties, particularly PTI and PPP, was probably exactly what he wanted.

The statement issued after the NSC meeting and the subsequent press conference by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi were in sharp contradiction, hinting that the statement was not based on consensus of all participants.

The blacking out of the prime minister’s press conference further sustained the perception of Stalin-type measures of controlling the media. Unfortunately the print and electronic media could not reinforce its independence and turned into an instrument in the hand of the deep state by dubbing pro democracy and civilian supremacy voices as anti-state and treasonous.

Less of the interview and more the reckless reaction, particularly through the media, affirmed on the public level that after the dharna of 2014 and later the APS’ massacre, the elected government was losing gradually its lawful authority to the creeping non-democratic forces, first in the garb of the ominous PTI-PAT alliance, and later the pact between judiciary and NAB. The setting up of JIT and the successive recall by NAB of the former prime minister point towards ad hominem accountability.

It is now public knowledge that for the last four years the elected government fought a war for survival. Amidst political uncertainty, the government dug its heel to complete some of its signature development projects and improved economic indicators. Some commentators claim that if the government was allowed to function smoothly the growth rate could have touched the 7 digit by now.

After the failure of Dharna to topple the government, the extreme measures of Plan B encompassed using the Supreme Court, NAB, media and coercing some political forces like the PPP to act like PTI came at a high cost of political and economic instability. By discrediting the institutions by tearing apart the veneer by the deep state not only proved its weakness and desperation, inadvertently it ended up strengthening Nawaz’ position among the people.

Every punch Nawaz received inflated his popularity in the masses which turned into a nightmare for the deep state. Thus resorting to crude tactics of disqualifying his close aides through the Supreme Court, constituting cases against them through NAB, forcing the so-called electables to leave the PML-N and blacking out Nawaz and his defenders from media, even the prime minister and sitting ministers ricocheted.

With the media blackout, people turned voraciously to social media. The press conferences of the prime minister and Javed Hashmi were most watched events on social media. Similarly, the few articles regarding the PTM declined by two English dailies attracted more readers when circulated on social media than the usual readers of the newspapers.

There were jokes and fears too. The joke was, if you want something to hit, circulate it on the social media with the remarks that the piece was censored or blacked out by mainstream media. But the fear is, the next assault will be against the social media.

In fact, these tricks create reverse effects among the people because it is not the dark age of monopoly of the so called mainstream media. Despite that Nawaz continues to convey his message to the people, particularly his narrative of respect the vote and civilian supremacy is overwhelmingly popular with the electorate.

More importantly, the mainstream media’s blatantly imbalanced one sided propaganda against Nawaz and his allies in the presence of a vibrant social media as an alternate source of information exposed the hand of the deep state and gave currency to his narrative.

For the first time in the history of the country the people, except a few ‘useful idiots’, have located where the problem lies and those responsible for the mess of the state and its oppressed people. There is a realisation that civilians were always used as a rented lot to play as sand and punching bags to shoulder responsibility for what they did not do.

There is an appearance of a silver lining for the PML-N in the electables that no longer carry bags of vote particularly in Punjab; they are elite but without electorates because people vote for Nawaz. To defect voters from Nawaz, the deep state has to twist the arm of every voter at the polling station which will not go unnoticed by the ubiquitous smartphones making their way into the social media.

The government is completing its term — a symbolic importance for democracy. Once the five-year term is over Nawaz will be unfettered whether behind bars or outside. He will continue to be a thorn in the side. To hold his ground and give a befitting political fight might ensure a place for his party in power but certainly for him in history.

The writer is a political analyst hailing from Swat. Tweets @MirSwat

Published in Daily Times, May 22^nd2018.