| August 5, 2002 | Monday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 25,1423 |
Needed a nine-day cleanup drive: KARACHI FILE
Getting on a KU bus
No land for thee, old man!
And now the voters are in a fix: VIEW FROM MARGALLA
EMPHASIS on ‘national interest’ assumed the dominant note of President Pervez Musharraf’s wide-ranging exposition of his proposed constitutional amendments, in Islamabad on July 25. Now, what exactly ‘national interest’ is and who determines it.
ON Wednesday, August 14, 2002, Karachi will be celebrating the Independence Day as a proud self-governing city. The great day is only 9 days away. Not a lot of time to go. Even so, nine days is nine days. Given some will and a modicum of wisdom, a lot can be done between now and that soul-stirring morning.
In the famous Socratic Catechism, Thrasymachus calls justice ‘the interest of the stronger party’. In any debate on the definition of ‘national interest’ one would arrive at the same conclusion more or less. The individual or group (party) in power lays down the rules to break or observe them according to their perceived notion and preferred definition of national interest.
An essentially undefinable term, national interest may well be and, not too unoften, is interpreted (and depending on the ‘interest of the stronger party’) moulded accordingly to mean only what it should at a given point of time. More than an ethical concept or a legal norm, it acquires a pragmatic value as a part of realpolitik and routine statecraft.
In Pakistan perhaps the most flexible, almost ludicrous, definition of ‘national interest’ was aired, in full view of a TV audience, in December 1971 after the military surrender at Dhaka. A BBC documentary on the tragic event was telecast by our own PTV. It might have been a bold attempt to let the nation face up to the grim reality and learn a lesson or two from that.
As might have been expected, however, the weird telecast created a furore in the armed forces still deployed all along the border at full post-ceasefire alert. Army chief Lt-Gen Gul Hassan Khan personally lodged a strong protest with President Bhutto, urging him to withdraw the documentary forthwith. The president accepted the army chief’s plea and got his law minister, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, to explain the dual circumstances governing the release and withdrawal of the documentary.
Mr Pirzada’s response to his TV anchorman, in each case, was ‘in supreme national interest’. The decision to telecast the film was as much in ‘supreme national interest’ as the one to withdraw it, he said.
The expression (supreme) ‘national interest’ dominates the president’s recent statement in support of his intended constitutional reforms. And just as well; for as a thoroughbred soldier and elected head of state, nothing would matter to him more than ‘national interest’. One’s only reservation on this score would be: how to define national interest? Whether as a precept universally shared by all citizens regardless of personal likes and dislikes or as something exclusive to the man on the horseback or the civilian in authority.
Regarding the authority and the standing of the prime minister under the new order, President Musharraf said: he (the prime minister) would not be allowed to indulge in corrupt practices and he would have to be a “very responsible” person. About the role and power of elected parliament in either reversing or rejecting his proposed constitutional amendments, he said: if the amendments made in national interest were rejected by the elected body, “we will take this seriously... and would not allow mala fide intentions to amend the Constitution. But if the intentions “are good, we will see ...”.
Now who are we? We the people of Pakistan or we on the pulpit or in the seat of supreme authority? In any case, what is the dividing line between intentions — mala fide and intentions, bona fide? Allah Almighty alone knows what might be at the bottom of one’s heart. Even Christ at the Last Supper wouldn’t know what Judas had at the back of his mind.
Questioning the bona fide intent of the amendments ‘introduced by the assemblies’ in the past, the president said that those were made on “short notice and for personal and party interest.” The 13 amendments enacted since the adoption of the 1973 Constitution should bear ample witness to the presidential argument. However, whether such constitutional aberrations could for ever be prevented or pre-empted remains a moot point.
The efficacy, in fact, the very raison d’etre of the future assemblies would depend on their own institutional strength and assertive character vis-a-vis the ‘interest of the stronger party,’ an individual or a group. The legislative / constituent assemblies of the past found themselves pitifully helpless against strong individuals like Ghulam Mohammad and Gen Ayub Khan. The fate of the assemblies (and prime ministers’) between 1977 and 1999 had been as grim and unfortunate.
The president took particular notice of the political environment during the past 12 years accounting for Benazir’s and Nawaz Sharif’s two terms each, as prime ministers between 1988 and 1999. Unfortunately and, equally painfully, both returned to power with thumping majorities only to throw those away. Mian Nawaz Sharif, in particular, enjoyed an unprecedented two-thirds majority in the house which he wantonly threw away like a valuable wicket on an excellent batting pitch.
While both Ms Bhutto’s and Mr Sharif’s performance as prime minister might have been (and was) exceptionally poor, their predecessors’ were hardly better ever since the assassination of prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan. Such had been the bane and the misfortune of Pakistan’s political and constitutional history. After the consistently dismal past, one, therefore, could only wish history would not be repeating itself in the years to come.
The question now staring us in the face and calling for a positive answer pertains to the root-cause of the downfall of so many of our elected governments. Whether to lay it at the door of mala fide intent or to attribute it simply to lack of will, skill and imagination to serve ‘national interest’ to the best of our ability.
On a more charitable view, perhaps, the failure to serve national interest could be attributed to such errors of judgment as are often unavoidable in human affairs regardless of the pull of bona fide intent.
Yet another serious reservation about a generally acceptable and enduring definition of national interest arises from the question as to who lays it down. Unless under the fundamental law of the land, as defined and defended by the supreme judicial authority, the term ‘national interest’ must remain perilously open to the preferred interpretation of the individual or group in power at a given point of time.
No matter how unselfish, non-partisan and patriotic the ruling authority might be, it can hardly be above the instinct of self-preservation under law, if possible, and above it, if necessary. Hence the pernicious doctrine of necessity.
A sorrier state of affairs would be hard to imagine if we are still looking for a working definition of ‘national interest’ in the 55th year of our national independence.
The writer is a retired brigadier
Cleanliness comes first and it ought to be that way with us. All of us know that Karachi desperately needs some drastic cleaning up. Once the cleanest city in south Asia, today it is almost the very opposite. The city is littered all over with filth and garbage. Overflowing drains and sewers add to this shame.
Our elected City Government is now nearly one year old. It has its birthday, too, to celebrate. What better gift can it give itself than a cleaner, and hence more attractive, look? It is no doubt going to be a tough task, but by no means a mission impossible. Let us get organized and then get cracking.
An elected administration’s best asset is that it is elected: that it has the people behind it, and also with it, shoulder to shoulder. Once the people are motivated and mobilized, they can do wonders. Time to remind ourselves that we made Pakistan against incredibly demanding and daunting odds. We made it, didn’t we?
August 14 is just the day to think of ourselves as the winners on our very own performance and as performers par excellence. Cleaning up things is an inspiring thought. Doing the cleaning up is great per se. It is an act that is its own indisputable justification and undeniable reward. Soiling hands can be a real joy.
So, how do we begin or where do we begin? Simple. Charity begins at home. So should cleaning up. First home, then street, then the mohalla. When this process from home to the locality is carried out and completed, the whole city would be a cleaner, brighter, healthier and a definitely happier place to be in.
Now it is up to the elected City Nazim to lead. If he goes about his task of leading, he should have no doubt that the citizens would follow. Where the leader has it in him to awaken and inspire, you have results that dazzle. An earnest effort should rid Karachi of its unlovely warts and pimples and redeem its grace.
Over the recent months Karachi certainly has seen some improvement. But this has been in fits and starts. An odd repair here and an equally odd and casual patchwork there. What seems to be lacking is a planned city-wide effort to tackle one pressing problem at a time. The Citizens’ participation is missing.
In order to achieve results that are quick and also sustainable, taking the people along is absolutely necessary and vital. You cannot expect to do much without it. Get the people out and get them willingly participating in the campaign to clean up the city. This is as much a citizen’s duty as the City Government’s.
Where the people play their role as citizens, the City Fathers cannot go to sleep, nor the city administration can expect to get away with shoddy performance. In Karachi, the citizen has not been awake and demanding. Nobody is serious about doing a job of work. Docile citizens make a shabby city.
In the first phase, that is in the run-up to the Independence Day, let us have a nine-day crash drive to clean up the city. Everybody in the city, from the elected City Nazim down to the humble sweeper, should be expected to get down to doing the needful that he/she can, as the part and parcel of this campaign.
As an incentive, the City Government may institute a few prizes to be distributed on the basis of recognisable entities. For instance, we have 18 towns in Karachi. Let the towns compete for cleanliness prizes. Commercial enterprises can also come in. They can do some airing and projection for themselves.
Schools, colleges, voluntary social workers, organizations like the NGOs should be only too willing to join, once a really people’s campaign is organized and set rolling. That’s how out of humble beginnings rise movements that alter the face of society and become revolutions that change the life of nations.
What is needed is a surge of enthusiasm to lift Karachi out of the abyss of listlessness that it has sunk into. Hardly ever you hear any citizen talk about the city in a rational and committed manner. There is no death of grumblers. Nothing wrong with grumbling. Indeed, it can be the beginning of the required action.
An act of real leadership can mobilise the grumbling into constructive thinking and getting down to doing what is so obviously needed to be done — not by the faceless government alone but by a motivated City Government, goaded and guided by the citizenry, acting as a self-propelled force.
Let us then hope that on this Independence Day Karachi will be a cleaned up, brushed up city with its long lost, and now new found, self-esteem.
So, help us God. Amen.
A COLLEAGUE has been having quite a torrid time at her place of study. She says: “After having studied in perhaps the most prestigious O and A level institutions in the city, Karachi University, putting it mildly, turned out to be a little different from what I expected (and hoped). The people were, well, unlike those I had encountered before, the teachers were different, so were the classrooms, the countless canteens, and even the bathrooms. I however managed to accustom myself to this change in atmosphere convincing myself that everything different is not bad. I also began to appreciate the simplicity present there and with time I actually fell in love with the place.
“There is unfortunately one thing that never ceases to amaze me and that I can never get used to, i.e. the way the shuttle buses go in and out of the university, picking up students like rag dolls and depositing them like garbage bags. Nine out of ten months I, with my gate pass, have the permission to take my car inside and park it in the parking lot. But the card does have a tendency to expire and my father does have a tendency to forget to renew it. During this time I have no choice but to take a ride in these dreaded shuttles.
“Now this ride will be okay if you are physically or even mentally strong and willing to throw in a few kicks, or push and pull those climbing up with you. At first I had no idea it would be like this but eventually I forced myself to get used to it telling myself that such was life.
“While on the bus the next thing to remember is that it will take off on full throttle and when the time for it to stop comes, it will halt giving you the jerk of a lifetime. After this you have to remember to stand up as fast as possible because if you think that the driver will wait for you, you are in for some disappointment, since he will press the accelerator with all his might and you will have to holler “WAIT!”. While getting down, the conductor with a leery grin will yell at you to hurry up and get off. You will be scared out of your wits and will most probably trip on the steps. Try to hurry away because it will take off again and I doubt you would want to run the risk of being run over by a Karachi University shuttle bus.
“As if this is not enough you also happen unfortunately to be at the mercy of the driver’s mood. If he happens to be mighty jolly on a particular day, he will slow down when you wave frantically at him. I earlier used to do that, thinking that if I didn’t he would not stop. Slowing down, he and his conductor will make you feel that they are going to stop, and you adjust your bag and dupatta as you get ready to step on the bus. But, as you do that, the bus will drive off and you will be left standing amid thunderous applause, whistles and loud cheers from the male students inside the vehicle. When this happened to me the first time, I felt as if all my carefully preserved dignity had been run over thoughtlessly and cruelly.
“I, sometimes wonder how I survived without losing my temper. Is there no one I can complain to? Is there no one who can take notice of these things?”
The government’s attempt to rationalize and justify the havoc created by its proposed construction of the Lyari Expressway seems very thin on logic and reason. After demolishing, without prior notice, the homes of thousands of people — many of whom had court orders — the provincial government and the National Highway Authority (NHA) have now come out with the rather unbelievable explanation that details of the project have always been open to the public, and that is in the best interest of all those who have been displaced.
In fact, in the past few weeks, the Sindh government even went as far as to say that the people — whose homes have been demolished — have welcomed the operation with open arms! Even the death of a young boy, who died some weeks ago during the demolition, was apparently covered up when an official spokesman claimed that he had died when he went back to his demolished home, apparently to recover some things that had been left behind.
Going back to the NHA’s claim that details of the project, including drawings and plans, were handed over in January to the Karachi city government for public display, the question then arises that why did the latter not publicize the project’s proposals, especially when thousands of people were going to be affected. In fact, covering a meeting of the Lyari Expressway at Governor House, the official news agency mentioned that “progress” had been made. ‘Progress’ for whom, though? Certainly not for the thousands of people who have lost their homes because of the demolition. This meeting was attended by the NHA chairman, a serving major general, the Sindh chief secretary, the DCO of Karachi and “other officials” and in the end the governor was quoted as being quite pleased that the project was finally going ahead. Now, this is not to say that development projects should never happen but the point is that why must they be carried out in such a ham-handed manner, and especially with an obvious disregard for those who will be most affected by it. Surely, none of the displaced families, or their representative, was present at the meeting to tell the Sindh governor their side of the story.
The report of the meeting said that “it was observed (sic) from comments of various persons that there is some misconception/misunderstanding about the Lyari expressway. It was explicitly clarified (sic) that this project is a boon both to the residents of the area of influence outside the riverbed as well as to those living in the riverbed itself. Some 150,000 persons are living in the flood plain of the river in very unhygienic, unsafe and dangerous conditions”.
The fact of the matter is that not many of the 150,000 people affected by the expressway see it as a boon. The fact also is that while the river is close to where they live, by no means are they living in what the authorities constantly refer to as a “riverbed”. In any case, they have been living there for decades and up till now no flood destroyed their homes and swept them away, except for one incident in 1977 which more or less submerged the rest of the city too. As for the “misconception/misunderstanding” it could easily be argued, and perhaps with greater force of logic, that the government and the NHA have a greater misunderstanding of the projects claimed benefits but obviously since they call the shots — and the thousands of displaced don’t — what they say gets done.
The report by the official news agency also said that the authorities were going ahead with the project with “zeal and no compromises”. Well, it’s certainly heartening to see the government and its various agencies going about doing their work with such ‘zeal’ but one would like to ask the NHA and the provincial government just what is meant by “no compromises”. Clearly, that seems to be a reference to the stubbornness of the authorities not to listen to the opinions of those who feel that the Lyari Expressway will do more harm than good, especially when better alternatives exist.
Many bungalows in Clifton and Defence these days are lying vacant. Either they sell, which they shouldn’t since the market is really down, or they find new tenants.
A colleague wanted to investigate a bit further and spoke to several estate agents who specialize in the houses for rent and sale in the “posh” areas of Karachi. She came back with the distinct impression that foreigners were no longer sought after as tenants like they used to be.
“No foreigners, please. They invite trouble and can be a security risk,” said one Clifton-based property consultant. “After the bombings, especially, westerners are seen as easy targets and hence many house owners are hesitant to rent to them,” he said. Even the ‘accommodation available’ ads are now of different. Instead of selling to foreigners, they say ‘just vacated by foreigners’.
However, all these ignores the fact that even if the owners of these grand homes did want to rent to foreigners, there probably aren’t any around these days.b — Karachian
I AM invariably late responding to SOS calls from friends. Well, not friends exactly but pen pals. Such a pen friend is Sheikh Muhammad Aslam who lives in Faisalabad. Now, on June 17, he wrote to me a lengthy letter (actually, it was a dossier), complaining about Phase III of the G-13 Housing Scheme in Islamabad. Among other things, he wrote:
“The ... dossier is self-explanatory. On April 12, I wrote a letter to a lawyer friend ... in Lahore... I think great injustice has been done at the highest level to senior citizens like myself. (My lawyer friend) phoned me a few days ago and said the case was worth fighting for (but for that) I would have to file a writ petition in the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court or the Supreme Court in Islamabad. This would be difficult for me to do because I live in Faisalabad.”
More importantly, his lawyer friend told him that judges were inclined these days not to take decisions against the president. “This discouraged me and I made no further move,” Mr Sheikh wrote.
Mr Sheikh then went on to tell me:
“The president has unfortunately overruled the acting federal ombudsman, Mr Justice (since retired) Muhammad Bashir Jehangiri, then a serving judge of the Supreme Court, without caring a tuppence for the rights of senior citizens.
“There is a public spirited lawyer in the Lahore High Court (Mr MD Tahir) who has made a name for himself by fighting for the rights of citizens. However, no such lawyer is available in Rawalpindi. Even Dawn has failed to report the bunglings of the Federal Housing Foundation, Islamabad. Dawn can still do it, if you like. Better late than never.”
Speaking for myself, I would rather be late than not do a thing at all.
When the federal housing foundation advertised in the press calling for applications for the allotment of plots of land, no cut-off date was announced. The following ‘order’ from the foundation must, therefore, have shocked him:
“...The Board of Governors, while approving the housing scheme in Sector G-13 in 1996 allowed a quota of 5 per cent plots for the retired civil servants with the condition that only those applicants would avail of this quota who (are) not more than 65 years of age on the cut-off date, i.e., April 1, 1996. The petitioner having June 6, 1921 as (his) date of birth was 75 years old on the cut-off date and, therefore, not eligible to apply...” To this, Mr Sheikh replied in a letter written to the official concerned in the Cabinet Division (complaints cell):
“... in April, 1997, the Housing Foundation announced in the press (Dawn, April 12, 1997) that lists of eligible applicants had been prepared on age-wise seniority reckoned from the date of birth and that retired government servants who were born before December, 1922, stood a chance. My date of birth being June 6, 1921, I was eligible and am still eligible for allotment...”
Later, Mr Sheikh together with many others moved the federal ombudsman in 2000. On December 5 the same year, the acting federal ombudsman ruled in favour of the applicants. The operative part of his ruling reads:
“...It is a settled law point that:
“‘In the absence of any law or custom, it would be against the principles of natural justice to permit the subjects of a state to be punished or penalized by laws of which they had no knowledge and of which they could not, even with the exercise of reasonable diligence, have acquired any knowledge. Natural justice requires that before a law can become operative, it must be promulgated or published.’ (General Clauses Act, 1897. Harla v State of Rajasthan, 1952, SCR 110, Gwalior Sugar Co v State of MB. AIR. 1954 MB 191).
“The representative of the foundation who is a senior law officer, could not provide any reasons for withholding this information/condition from the applicants. Since the decision was not notified and the public was not informed/warned before this decision of the board (of governors) cannot become part of the conditions at a belated stage and cannot curtail the rights of the citizens accrued to them as a result of (the) exclusion of this decision from (the) terms and conditions set out for (the) allotment of plots.
“In view of the foregoing, it is held that the complainants are eligible for considerations of allotment of plots provided they fulfil other conditions... It is, therefore, recommended that the complainants shall be allotted plots if found otherwise eligible within a period of one month and compliance report submitted.
“Justice Muhammad Bashir Jehangiri
“Acting Ombudsman
“Dated December 5, 2000”
I have run out of space. Next week I will tell you how the president threw this eminently reasonable order out the window.
I PICK the following passage today from The Statesman, dated September 19, 1891 — almost exactly 111 years ago. It has been taken from The Statesman. An Anthology 1875-1975.
It reads:
“There are people with a spirit bordering on fanaticism, who claim that all distilled, fermented liquors are coeval with mankind. The oldest of records preserved show, says a writer in the Washington Post, that there was a drink brewed by the ancient tribes of Africa and Spain 700 years before the Christian era. Virgil in his song tells of the barley drink of northern nations, imbibed like wine. Zenophon tells of the barley drink of Armenians who drank their barley brewings from mugs filled to the brim with its kernels by means of little straws. It is said that beer was the popular drink during the first century of the Christian era in France, Belgium and England, and the Teutonic tribes brewed a beer so excellent that it was highly spoken of by Caesar, Tacitus and Diodor. Beer became so Teutonized throughout the world that it was known by the Saxon name of bior.
“But beer in those days was made without hops. It appears that about 750 years before Christ, during the migratory period of nations, the cultivation of hops was undertaken. The mythologists laud Osirus, the ancient god of Egypt, for having given them the art of beermaking. History declares this art, which originated in Egypt, was taught to the Greeks, and by them in turn to the Romans. Of the good that followed the conquest it is claimed that the knowledge given to the world by the Romans, of the art of beermaking, was itself no small compensation. The first real beer as today known was brewed by a monk under the sanction of the Church. Hamilton in his Intellectual Life says: “In that clear golden drink which England has brewed for more than a thousand Octobers, and will brew for a thousand more, we may find, perhaps some explanation of the absence of irritability which is the safeguard of the national character which is faithful in its affections, easy to govern, not so easy to excite to violence.”
On December 19, 1984, the following note appeared in The Statesman on the author of Treasure Island:
“The death of Robert Louis Stevenson, at his romantic home in the South Seas is a sore loss to English letters. The event is not entirely unexpected. It has for some time been known that the delicacy which characterised the novelist as a child, which expatriated him in early manhood and which finally determined his choice of refuge in the tropics, was increasing. But it is none the less a heavy blow, for the weavers of fiction who have at command a nervous sinewy prose are a fast diminishing band. Stevenson has died at the comparatively early age of 44, having built up his great reputation almost entirely within the last dozen years.”
Too bloody Victorian, don’t you think?
THE PML(Q) has collapsed under the weight of its own heavy weights. Ijazul Haq, the weightiest of them all has run away with his own faction of heavies. On the other hand the PML(N), a party which only a couple of days ago had appeared to be on the verge of disappearing has made a dramatic comeback on the country’s centre stage. Shahbaz Sharif has been elected as the PML(N) chief in place of his brother. This seems to be an attempt by the Sharifs to bypass the Political Parties Ordinance which bars parties headed by ‘convicts’ (Nawaz Sharif being one) from contesting the October elections. However, it is still not very clear whether Shahbaz Sharif, who was part of the package deal struck between the Saudis and the military junta, could get through the net of PPO woven especially to keep the Sharifs and the Bhuttos out of the electoral arena. But then perhaps the Saudis have offered to double the free flow of oil if we could facilitate any Sharif other than Nawaz to become our next Prime Minister!!
Jokes apart the case of Benazir Bhutto who has already been elected the chief of her party also remains as ambiguous. According to PPP interpretation BB is not a ‘convict’ in the true legal sense of the meaning. But those who authored the relevant rule insist that if she remained her party chief, under the law the PPP would not get the election symbol. At this juncture, therefore, one cannot rule out the possibility of the elections taking place without the PPP in the arena. Of course, the credibility of such an election would certainly be undermined to an extent but would not the PPP suffer more if it remained out of the contest? One recalls the damage the party sustained when the MRD had boycotted the 1985 partyless elections. But what exactly would happen if the CEC refuses to issue an election symbol to PPP on the grounds that the party had violated the Political Parties Ordinance by getting Benazir elected as its head? Would not that make life easier for Benazir Bhutto? The PPP would be out without BB getting the blame for boycotting the election which she knows the government would steal from her in any case. The blame would justifiably be put squarely on the government by BB by pointing out how PPP-specific laws were made solely to keep the Party out of the contest. And in such an eventuality she would not need even to come back and be incarcerated for, God knows, how long leaving the children at the mercy of circumstances. If such a situation arose, the PPP candidates could perhaps participate in the elections as independents but in that case the Party would not be able to contest the seats for the Senate and the reserved seats for women and minorities if some of the constitutional amendments being proposed are introduced.
So, with only 67 days left for the elections, the voter still does not know whether the PML(N) and PPP are in or out of the contest. Likewise, with the split in the PML(Q) the voter who had made up his mind in favour of this party finds himself in a state of utter confusion today. The Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT) of Dr Tahirul Qadri has already left the National Alliance (NA) reducing it into a solely Millat Party-dominated alliance. The Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf of Imran Khan is engaged in a solo flight. Both Farooq Leghari and Imran Khan still appear to be finding it increasingly difficult to win for their respective parties the kind of mass appeal that the PML(N) and PPP are supposed to be enjoying even today. The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, a conglomerate of religious parties, is watching and waiting. It seems to be prepared to cooperate with even the devil himself in order to upset the political applecart which the military junta is trying so painstakingly to set up. The MMA has managed to win over to its side a large portion of anti-American voters whose number is increasing by the day because of the way the US is persecuting the Muslims all over the world on the pretext of eradicating ‘terrorism’ from the face of the earth. There has always existed a natural affinity between the PML(N) and the religious parties. It was, perhaps, at the behest of the Army that the religious elements became hostile towards the PML(N) first because of Lahore Declaration and then when the entire blame for the Kargil debacle was passed on to Nawaz Sharif. Now that these religious elements know who did what during the Kargil episode and who took all those decisive U-turns after 9/11, they may find it easier now to collaborate with a PML(N) led by Shahbaz. But how would the establishment, which has come under increasing US influence, view this development? Shehbaz is, perhaps, too pragmatic to let idealism dictate his political decisions.
The other day I spent a couple of hours with a well informed PML(Q) leader in the company of two senior columnists. And what he told us should send shivers down the spine of Imran Khan and Farooq Leghari. He does not think that these two stand any chance in the coming elections. They would perhaps be lucky if they win their own respective seats, he believes. He has also wished away PPP and PML(N) from central Punjab. He has given urban Sindh to MQM with PML(Q) emerging as a junior partner in the province as he is certain that his party would enter into an election alliance or seat adjustment arrangement with Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Karachi, Sukkur and some other urban areas of Sindh where, in his opinion, there is a substantial presence of PML(Q). He is banking on Imtiaz Shiekh and Mr Rind to do a Jam Sadiq on the PPP in the interior of Sindh using what he calls pre-poll rigging tactics. He is certain that this process has already started.
He rules out any possibility of rigging taking place on the election day because in his opinion the government would like to avoid at all costs doing anything that would provide the international monitors and the foreign media any excuse to reject the outcome of the polls. Secondly, he thinks it would be next to impossible to rig the elections on the polling day as the polling agents and their hundreds of supporters would be watching the process rather closely. He, however, does not rule out the possibility of ballot box stuffing even before the commencement of the polling process, but only in some selected constituencies. At the time of vote counting too, he thinks, the government can make it possible through some slight of hand to come up with winning numbers for favourites. But this too would be done in selected and safe constituencies.—Onlooker