Cloak-and-dagger politics

It is a bit early to identity the unsung heroes of tabdeeli who ensured the continuity of a great symbol of change in the Senate by voting against their party lines. Though they belong to the corrupt mafia, their conscience made them acts like the sadiqs and amins of the ruling party.

Corrupt souls are trying to guess the real motives of these heroes. According to Einstein, ‘Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.’ Fortunately, Pakistan is being ruled by three great countervailing forces of wisdom, courage and selflessness. As the bright sun of revolution is shining upon us, we may agree with Firdous Ashiq Awan that these stray horses were herded by their noble angels to the path of righteousness.

Only a day after the no-confidence motion in the Senate failed, Umar Cheema, one of the worst joy-killers of our journalism, traced the beacon of light back to the wise man of Pakistan’s politics, currently languishing in a NAB cell. That may as well be a conspiracy to take credit away from the group of senators whose conscience is wide awake.

I had suspected something like this as soon as Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, a PPP politician from Rawalpindi who represents Sindh in the Senate, tendered his resignation soon after the motion failed. Why did he want to take the burden of the conscience of 14 errant colleagues upon himself? Sensing the damage, the PPP immediately asked all senators to tender their resignations.

Losing a single battle should not have meant much for the opposition if it had not lost it like Seringapatam. What is even worse is that they do not know who made the breach in the walls of the fort.

If the news reports of the involvement of the top leadership of PPP find credence, the party may be faced with immense political damage. After all, the PPP has sustained itself in worst circumstances through images of sacrifice and martyrdom. Nothing can be more antithetical to these images than images of cowardice and low forms of cleverness. All parties take U-turns and cut deals, but this level of duplicity and deceit is unusual even going by Pakistan’s politics.

Bilawal’s image, already tainted by his father’s reputation, will be meted a very serious blow. He should have nurtured his own image by standing apart from his father and representing the legacy of his maternal family. Unfortunately, he has embraced his father tightly out of filial affection. He should have realized the wisdom of Emperor Babar that kings (and princes) have no relatives.

What’s more – and worse – the PPP may not get any serious relief from its current predicaments and it will have lost its last chance of dealing with powerful forces from a relative position of strength.

If these reports are found credible, a disjointed opposition will not be able to put up a serious resistance to the government for many months or years to come. Mutual suspicion will hinder them from jointly planning any serious actions. Sensing this weakness, the government will redouble its assault upon them to fulfil its dreams of a single-party hegemony in the country.

To avoid this most likely scenario, the onus is on the opposition parties to identify their conscientious members and send them packing to the stables of tabdeeli directly, where they will be welcomed with open arms. If the opposition parties succeed in doing this, they may have a better chance in the next battle as the hardliners in these parties will stand vindicated that the PTI does not want to play by the rules.

Whatever future course the politics of the opposition takes, it has met serious harm at the moment. The first joint assault of the united opposition was meant to reverse the pressure that the opposition has faced from the government for a year. Their success would have delivered a strong message to the government and may have forced it to change its attitude towards them. None of these objectives has been achieved as the opposition has shown itself incapable of working together.

In the long run, the PTI may be the biggest victim of its own victory. It will soon realize that the world does not revolve around Imran Khan’s charisma and its core is only a fraction of Pakistan’s population, only a section of its own 31 percent vote bank in fact. For everyone else, other things also matter.

For most of Pakistan, what was bad with the PPP and the PML-N also remains unacceptable if it comes from the PTI. For the moment though it may deliver a new slogan to its ardent followers on the lines of: “Four legs good, two legs better.”

The writer is an anthropologist and development professional.

Email: zaighamkhan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @zaighamkhan