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| July 16, 2005 | Saturday | Jumadi-us-Sani 8, 1426 |
Kulsoom recalls Sharifs’ ordeal after overthrow
LAHORE, July 15: Many party leaders, who were very close to Mian Nawaz Sharif when he was the prime minister, and who always showered praise on him, had changed their course immediately after the overthrow of the PML-led government and started issuing statements which reflected as if they were long waiting for the day. It has been mentioned in a book “Jabr aur Jamhooriat”, written by Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, which will be available in the market in the near future.
In the book, Begum Kulsoom recalls how she had come to know that the army had taken over power and her husband, son Husain and brother-in-law Mian Shahbaz Sharif were in the custody of the army. Armed people had targeted their guns at Mr Sharif and were asking him to resign as prime minister. “Do you want to kill me,” asked Mr Sharif. They did not come up with any response and stood silent in their positions, quotes the books.
A housewife Begum Kulsoom’s struggle against dictatorship, the difficulties she faced, the non-cooperation of various party leaders and the formation of the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy are some of the subjects highlighted in the book.
Also included in the book are speeches made by Begum Kulsoom Nawaz at meetings with party leaders and workers at her then Model Town residence.
The book deals with the events which took place between Oct 12, 1999 and Dec 3, 2000, when the ARD was set up. However, it is silent on how the Sharifs were banished to Saudi Arabia on Dec 10, 2000.
Begum Kulsoom has not written a word against the opposition parties, which had launched a movement against the PML-led government.
The book also narrates events as they had taken place, most of them already known to people. She recalled that it was on Feb 9, 2000 when the PML-N central working committee decided that the Grand Democratic Alliance should be approached for a joint struggle against dictatorship. A committee was set up to contact the GDA, of which the PPP was also a component.
No difference of opinion had been expressed at the meeting. But Mian Muhammad Azhar, Khurshid Kasuri and Ejazul Haq had a meeting on Feb 11 in which they gave the impression that they could become a B-team of Gen Pervez Musharraf and also divide the party. A PML-N central working committee was held at the Peshawar residence of Iqbal Zafar Jhagra on March 16, which set up a seven-member committee for a democratic struggle and cooperation with other parties. While constituting the committee it was not considered which member was anxious to join hands with the government and which one wanted to play a role in the caravan for democracy. This approach was adopted to deprive them of an excuse that left out of the committee they were constrained to turn against the leadership.
Khurshid Kasuri, Gohar Ayub Khan, Asad Junejo and Husain Bangalzai were taken from the PML and Prof Sajid Mir, Mir Hasil Bizenjo and Haji Fazle Karim from the allied parties. They were told to make immediate contacts.
Mian Azhar, on the other hand, was trying to divide the party as desired by the dictator. He was meeting various people and projecting himself as the future prime minister.
He also organized an Eid reception, which was participated in by people opposed to Mian Nawaz Sharif. In their speeches they levelled allegations against Mr Sharif and said dictatorship should be accepted unreservedly.
It was in April when Gohar Ayub Khan contacted the PPP for struggle for democracy.
On April 13, a meeting of the party’s central working committee was held which discussed the implications in case Mr Sharif was convicted in the plane-hijack case. A total of 27 members participated. But many of them left before the press briefing as they saw their chances of coming to power only if the former prime minister was held guilty. Chaudhry Shujaat Husain was out of the country at the time, but he returned home a day before the verdict was announced. He held a news conference where he was asked the possibility of the party sharing power with Gen Musharraf and the future PML president in case Mr Sharif was convicted.
Shujaat said whatever the decision, the leadership of the PML would remain unchanged. He further said a participation in the government would be suicidal.
Recalling all this, Begum Kulsoom regretted that Shujaat could not stick to his word.
It was in October 2000 when Chaudhry Shujaat proposed the formation of a civil-military government, which established that he had turned against the leadership, although he tried to dilute the impression through other statements.
Syed Zafar Ali Shah had met Ms Benazir Bhutto in Dubai in connection with a joint struggle. Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Fateh Muhammad Hasni were also present. At the meeting it was decided in principle that the PPP and the PML-N, while sticking to their respective political views, should launch a joint struggle. Shah on his return to Pakistan briefed Begum Kulsoom and other party leaders on the talks he held with the PPP leadership.
A three-member committee was set up for contacts with other parties. The same day Raja Zafarul Haq met Chaudhry Shujaat “to take him into confidence despite all his negative activities and to protect the party unity.”
A PML-N delegation, led by Raja Zafarul Haq, met Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan on Oct 20 with the objective of launching a joint struggle.
But the very next day, the “like-minded group” met at the residence of Khurshid Kasuri and rejected the bid to set up the alliance, which was yet to be formed. Mian Nawaz Sharif wrote a letter to the party, underlining the need for unity among all political forces to rid the country of dictatorship.
The like-minded group was not in favour of cooperation with other parties. They were telling people that they had reached an agreement with the dictatorship for power-sharing.
The book also recalls a meeting in which Sabir Shah and Begum Tehmina Daultana proposed that Begum Kulsoom should be appointed a member of the party’s working committee as she could be the most effective contact between the former prime minister and the party. But some important party leaders, Chaudhry Shujaat Husain and Khurshid Kasuri in particular, opposed the proposal, fearing that it might upset their plans.
They said Begum Kulsoom could participate in the party meetings as an observer, not a member of the central working committee.
Begum Kulsoom also recalled how the Sharif family members faced detention at their Raiwind farms.
Since there was no contact between her and Mian Nawaz Sharif and son Husain, she went on a hunger strike which continued for some days. She also wrote about the 10 letters to Gen Musharraf requesting him that he should allow her husband and son to talk to her by phone.
She had received no response to her letters after which she started suspecting that her letters were not delivered to Gen Musharraf.
When she asked the army people deployed on the Raiwind farms, they told the wife of the former prime minister that every letter reached Gen Musharraf only two hours after she handed it to them.
A telephonic contact was allowed after the protest. Husain talked to his mother a day later.
Begum Kulsoom also recalled the first meeting she had held with Husain at an army mess in Rawalpindi. She was waiting for him in the mess when she saw a car coming in with a woman in a black veil sitting between two men. As the occupants came out, it transpired that the ‘woman’ clad in burqa was in fact her son. When his veil was removed, Husain emerged blind-folded.
The speeches reproduced in the book were published by the media when they were delivered.
However, in one speech, Begum Kulsoom said her husband as prime minister took all important decisions after undertaking istikhara. He had used the same procedure before deciding on carrying out nuclear tests on May 28, 1998.
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