Will Nawaz be Punjab’s Bhutto? – Pakistan

"Mein iss sawal ka jawab dena zuroori nahi samajhta, (I don't think it is necessary to answer this question)," then IJI leader Nawaz Sharif broke up in response to my question of whether the newly formed alliance to stop Benazir Bhutto's PPP before the November 1988 elections were the work of ISI and Lieutenant General Hamid Gul.

I remember vividly that afternoon at the residence of Jamaat-i-Islami naib amir Prof Ghafoor Ahmad Karachi in the period before the polls after a plane crash killed the dictator Gen Ziaul Haq and several of his close associates.

Since Sharif's entire political career up to that time had been shaped by one general or another, it was not an unreasonable question that was based on news reports of the time. But it bothered the young leader of Punjab and, when he responded, the color began to increase on his cheeks.

That was then. Today, the former prime minister, three times elected, is fighting a battle with multiple life-threatening diseases, difficult to say to what extent due to the pathetic treatment and political revenge he was subjected to in prison. The man chosen by the military strongman as a key potential civil partner in the early 1980s now seems to have become the ruin of the existence of the same forces that once proudly convinced him as the civil facade of the time.

The almost 40-year political career of Nawaz Sharif comprises many phases. He and his family had a debt to General Zia, who returned their nationalized iron and steel works, the Ittefaq Foundry, and propelled him into politics.

A man who tried to assert civil supremacy is fighting an uphill battle for his life.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Sharif entrepreneurs accumulated wealth, it is unclear how much because of the patronage extended by the military, but enough; That's where some of your current problems may be rooted. Of course, it was not a problem while they were at stake.

For those who play ball, as the Gujrat Chaudhries have done, it is never a problem. Does anyone remember the scandal of cooperatives in Punjab, where the lifelong savings of hundreds of thousands of poor farmers were eliminated and who was the main beneficiary? Favorites have long been sponsored through parcels and permits, through timely and perfectly adjusted SROs, and last but not least, through loans granted and canceled by nationalized banks. It was the cornerstone of Zia's partyless politics. (Musharraf was no different once he acquired the ambition to be a semi-civil leader.)

The game continued in the late 1980s until 1999 with a civil leader, that is, Nawaz Sharif, who sided with the military or his candidate, the president, to get the PPP out of the way. During his term in office, the PPP tried to return the same currency. Political revenge became the order of the day when power changed hands between the two.

After the 1997 surveys, Sharif seemed to have had the idea that he could be the real deal and tried to accumulate all powers in his own person and proclaim himself "amirul momineen". His attempt was facilitated by a PPP that was so contaminated by corruption charges that it was out of service.

But he miscalculated and was overthrown by General Musharraf. Sharif was jailed, sentenced and then exiled. Belonging to a very close family, where the patriarch made the decisions, and losing his father and not being able to attend his funeral was perhaps a big surprise.

This is where he seems to have reached the age of majority and he signed the Charter of Democracy with Benazir Bhutto to obviate past follies. When Benazir Bhutto was killed in a bomb attack in 2007, he was rushed to the Rawalpindi hospital where the PPP leader was taken in a futile attempt to save his life. The arch-rival and the enemy during the 1980s and 1990s were crying and comforting the PPP jiyalas on that cold December afternoon. It seemed shattered, when the color faded from his face. Many jiyalas clung to him and cried over his shoulder.

When his last period of power that ended in 1999 was marked by his attempts to place all powers in his own hands and treat political opponents with contempt, when he became prime minister in 2013, he looked like a new man. He easily handed over the KP government to the PTI, the largest individual party there, when its own PML-N could have formed a coalition and, like the PPP, let the media operate freely as it should in democratic societies.

But his party's rejection of the PPP's suggestion to reduce the broad and almost inexplicable powers granted to the National Office of Accountability continues to persecute him and his immediate family as he does with other politicians in his party and leaders. of the PPP. Even then, it would be naive to assume that there were no other means to harass the opposition. Once a politician, even if he is a former prime minister three times or president, he goes out of line with the powers that are numbered in his day.

It would also be naive to believe that an experienced civilian politician can be defeated by instinct and foresight even by powerful aspirants. In October 2016, anticipating the challenges that Pakistan would face in the face, Sharif called a meeting with the army and the ISI chief.

The meeting was informed by experts from the Foreign Office about our growing isolation due to the country's support for militant groups. The prime minister ordered the officials present to treat the situation as the top priority, but when the news appeared in the media, hell broke loose. A visibly annoying establishment took it as an affront; What followed is a matter of registration, but nobody is willing to acknowledge that they were wrong even with the threat of the FATF blacklist looming over our heads.

Read: IHC grants bail for medical reasons to Nawaz until Tuesday in the Al Azizia case

A man who tried to assert civil supremacy is fighting an uphill battle for his life. One can only wish you health and a speedy recovery. The rulers are sincerely expected to begin to realize the ramifications of giving Punjab their own Bhutto.

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.

abbas.nasir@hotmail.com

Posted on Dawn, October 27, 2019