POREG VIEW: Nawaz Sharif, the supremo of the Pakistan Muslim League faction he heads, is not a maverick. He makes calibrated moves, and often outsmarts his rivals not only in the games of one-upmanship but also in survival techniques.
This is one reason why he could manage to return from his exile to the dismay of General Pervez Musharraf, who himself is cooling his heels on the American and British lecture circuit. More over, like several sections of Pakistani political spectrum, Nawaz is a product of the ‘establishment’ as the military has come to be known.
So much so, his remarks in Lahore in the course of a speech on the stand off between Zardari and his MQM-JuI (F) allies are interesting to say the least.
His assertion that PML-N will not become a part of the puppet show is to be taken on its face value. Firstly he is not involved in the show which is of the ruling coalition in Islamabad and Karachi. Secondly the coalition has been pushed into turmoil because of factors to which Nawaz has made no contribution, direct or indirect.
This is not to say that the former prime minister was a disenchanted by-stander as President Zardari and Multani Gilani have picked up the lameduck mantle.
He has tried to build bridges with his one-time friends in Rawalpindi through the good offices of his brother Shahbaz, who has a working equation with all those who matter at the GHQ.
Shahbaz has been furthering in his own unobtrusive way the Kayani plan of keeping the President unnerved. The Shahbaz spat with Governor Taseer, who is a Bhutto family loyalist, is a puppet show in a sense.
If this indeed is the case, as it is said to be, Mian Nawaz Sharif’s outpouring against the military dictators appears out of sync. His criticism that all military dictators changed the structure of the country is no doubt true. Also a matter of fact is his lament that ‘Pakistan was not created for any establishment that comes to power through guns and by subverting the constitution’.
From such a thesis comes naturally the assertion that ‘PML-N will not become part of the "puppet show" and will make its decisions independently.
Well, the assertion befitted the occasion which was the 106 Foundation Day of Muslim League – a party that had championed the idea of Pakistan, and has become a political amoeba within less than a decade after realizing its goal.
Indeed, it would have been in the fitness of things had Nawaz spoke on the moves for unification of all League factions even though some are no more than one-man or one-family wonders. He did not.
Nawaz is not known to have a sense of history. Also his one point or rather one and a half point agenda at the moment is keeping his nemesis out of power politics if possible by pushing him into Lahore central jail.
Gen Musharraf was behind the PML unity moves because he saw in a larger PML a hope for his own second power innings. MQM and Maulana Fazal have put brakes on the Musharraf dream by cornering Zardari and thus giving a fresh lease of life to the Chaudhry brothers, who are better known as the survivors in all seasons.
When Nawaz harps on his demand that all military dictators should be made accountable for subverting the constitution of the country, he is upping the ante clearly to ambush Musharraf. But the former dictator is not giving him any chance.
That is largely because of wheels within wheels of Pakistan politics.
Every Bhutto loyalist in the PPP believes that Musharraf is the suspect number one in the assassination of Mohtarma Benazir. But her husband thinks otherwise. And his police have not questioned him as yet.
It was only on the eve of third anniversary of the assassination in the Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpinidi, a questionnaire was sent to the former President’s London address.
Was the questionnaire a part of package deal – a new version of national reconciliation order?
It appears to be so to the dismay of Nawaz Sharif, and it means he may have to be glued to the election campaign at least for one year if not two. The Zardari steam will run out in the normal course in two more years.
