A comparison of Nawaz, Musharraf exits from Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: There are a number of contrasts and parallels between the exit of Pervez Musharraf out of Pakistan and the departure of the Sharif clan for Saudi Arabia over a decade and a half back.

In both cases, the very same people figure although they have reversal of roles. So, it has been Musharraf versus Sharifs and the vice versa, the former being once all powerful ruler and now a big political nonentity while the latter being a huge political force all    the time that can’t be wished away.

Before the Sharifs were bundled off to Jeddah to remain there in exile for the next seven years, they were subjected to unprecedented torture in prisons and outside of them, including decimation of their business empire. Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif and other key family member were stuffed in dungeons, including solitary confinement for 14 months, to face the worst nightmare of their life. Musharraf turned out to be very vindictive to perpetuate his unconstitutional rule.

A conspicuous similarity in the two departures is that both sides are and were happy in one way or the other. Musharraf was satisfied that he has got rid of an ominous political challenge to his rule, put by Begum Kulsoom, who was then campaigning hard against his dictatorial rule with Nawaz Sharif and other family members being behind the bars. She had then proved to be the only formidable defiant leader against him, and the dictator wanted to come out of this tough situation.

Had the Sharifs remained in Pakistan, he would have always felt threatened from them. After their exit from Pakistan, he found the going very easy as there was no worthwhile force left in the political field to confront him menacingly. As a result he ruled the roost unopposed. Old timers recall that the Sharifs’ departure had been kept a closely guarded secret till the last moment. On December 10, 2000, when they flew out of Pakistan, Begum Kulsoom had met Nawaz Sharif in the Attock jail, and as she came back from it, all family members left for Jeddah by a special Saudi plane that was waiting for them at the Islamabad airport.

It is well known that Saudi Arabia and Qatar had consistently put intense pressure on Musharraf to let the Sharifs go out of Pakistan to which he had succumbed. Their persuasions were teed off immediately after the imposition of martial law in October 1999.

In the instant case, it is widely asserted that the federal government submitted to the urging of the establishment or was scared of its reaction and was left with no option but to let Musharraf off the hook. Thus, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif obviated a needless pain in the neck and gave a message to the establishment that he believes in forgiving and forgetting.

The interior minister’s announcement to scrap the name of retired general from the Exit Control List (ECL) made it clear that Musharraf had been barred from flying out of Pakistan since 2013 only on the orders of the Supreme Court and the government had not done so on its own. This meant that the government had no plan to stop him from leaving Pakistan. It also connoted that the government would not have placed Musharraf’s name on the ECL, had there been no judicial order.

When the minister stated that the November 3, 2007, emergency imposed by Musharraf had, in fact, exclusively targeted the judges of the superior courts, which now have no objection to his departure from Pakistan, he signaled that the government has never been opposed to his leaving the country if the judiciary doesn’t want to keep his name on the ECL. While Musharraf was obviously excited to get himself disentangled from the virtual confinement, the government, unlike his regime, is embarrassed and faces political damage. It has to keep reacting to the onslaught of its detractors in the weeks to come for allowing Musharraf to go away easily.

However, only the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is in the forefront in this tirade while almost all other political forces, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) implicitly approve the official policy. It is the same PPP, which had let Musharraf to fly out of Pakistan during its government in 2008-2013 despite the fact that he had been nominated in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and trial of the case had commenced.

Apart from the pressure of the establishment that has been sweepingly cited as the principal reason behind the government’s decision to be soft on retired general, it is also a fact that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has demonstrated that he has no vendetta against the former dictator and has forgiven him despite all the excesses he had perpetrated on him and his family apart from overthrowing his government. On the contrary, Musharraf was highly revengeful against the Sharifs.

While Begum Kulsoom was a daunting political threat to Musharraf, the ex-general never threw up any big political challenge to Nawaz Sharif as he remained a nobody in the political arena. His party exists only in name and has no prospects of becoming a force to be reckoned with. The last three years when he remained in Pakistan facing constant humiliation on different counts might have inculcated some sense in him that he is politically irrelevant and has no takers of his philosophy in Pakistan.