ISLAMABAD: Only two of nearly 10 advocates of a national dialogue belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have so far luckily escaped arrest by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) or any agency on any charge.
Most of them are the members of the PML-N parliamentary advisory group that was constituted by Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif when they were behind bars. The cluster was put together to take key party decisions after consultations, if possible, with the detained leaders. If such a discussion could not be held with the detainees, the group was asked to proceed on its own when the situation demands.
Despite favouring the talks, a PML-N leader told The News these stalwarts had been arguing within their party that it had to be stressed in any negotiations that all state institutions should work within their defined constitutional domains and should not encroach upon others’ realms. The PML-N hawks had always looked at this class with suspicion and showered taunts on it, privately and publicly. However, this did not help budge this set of leaders from their firm estimation. The fortunate PML-N leaders, who have not yet tasted the jail after the July 2018 general elections include former National Assembly speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Rana Tanveer Hussain, who is the current chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). He got this position after Shahbaz Sharif relinquished it.
Knowledgeable circles say detailed and prolonged investigations had been conducted by different agencies to arraign Ayaz Sadiq at all costs but nothing incriminating was found to justify and back up any charge against him.
They say the properties bequeathed by his forefathers to the family with some of which having been put to charity use were also deeply looked into. Ultimately, it transpired that it would be futile to pursue the probe further. For this reason, Ayaz Sadiq has not been caught thus far.
Almost all the dialogue proponents changed their mind and became its hardened opponents after they were picked up and afterward came out of prison on bails. Then, they started sharing the views of those who have been snubbing the idea of talks.
The greatest supporter of dialogue and non-confrontation, Shahbaz Sharif, who has completed the first 100 days in jail once again, is in prison for the second time over the past two and half years.
Despite his incarceration, his obsession for reconciliation did not wither away, and he harped on his old theme when the “peacemaker” Muhammad Ali Durrani had a lengthy session with him in the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore a few days back. Even when the PML-N has embarked upon an aggressive trajectory under the umbrella of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), those now frantically seeking dialogue selected him for discussion. Shahid Khakan Abbasi was another advocate of dialogue. He too was detained for a long time by the NAB. He was later bailed out by the Islamabad High Court (IHC). The NAB is preparing to open new cases against him after he is averse to his old somewhat soft line.
Ahsan Iqbal fell in the same category of proponents of talks. He was also arrested by the NAB and was subsequently granted bail by the IHC.
Rana Sanaullah was no different from these PML-N leaders. Registration of a narcotics case came as a bombshell for him, and he had to become a hardliner against any dialogue.
Khawaja Saad Rafique had been the most vociferous advocate of dialogue and had been publicly airing his views. However, he, along with his brother Salman Rafique, was also arrested by the NAB and had to spend a long time in prison. He is no longer the same man he was before he was jailed.
Khawaja M Asif, another dialogue pursuer, was the last one eventually caught by the NAB last week after facing the investigations in the same case for more than two years. His arrest came as a surprise because most in the PML-N believed that it would not happen for different reasons. However, Khawaja Asif himself was sure that he would be apprehended, and had prepared himself mentally for this possibility. Some of these PML-N leaders, who are out on bails, have repeatedly articulated the apprehension that they might be held once again because they have departed from their previous positions of having dialogue.
