Lights, camera, action — frozen for posterity!

TO BE sure, no genuine political contender for the same crown envies the ‘prime minister of inaugurations’ as the savvy Shaukat Aziz has come to personify (for spicier chutzpah, please contact Imran Khan).

But of late, even these inaugurations have assumed an interesting life — a sign, perhaps, of the interesting times we live in.

In keeping with its tradition of making people with power, imagined or real, look funny when the chips are down, Islamabad is now offering just such a spectacle at the expense of you-know- who.

Driven by security fears, Shaukat Aziz, the handsomest prime minister this country has had since the charismatic Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (apologies are in order for ZAB, since, in contrast to Aziz, he really ruled the roost), has chosen a novel way to go about the only thing he does with indulgence: inaugurate.

In safer times, well before his boss Gen Pervez Musharraf decided to shrink the political space for himself with one atrocious blunder after another, Aziz would be at hand, anywhere, anytime to cut the ribbon and make the most of photo-ops.

The beaming face of the economic czar would find space liberally, thanks to his media saviour-faire here, there and everywhere. However, since the militants have got naughtier, such open-air fanfare has been held in abeyance, like some unwanted article of the Constitution.

To his credit, the PM, who otherwise presents little threat to any form of ideology, individual or group with his one dimensional but harmless ‘all is well’ mantra, is not the only one cocooned in the security zone. Almost the entire lot of the current regime’s mandarins and military ranks live in perpetual fear of their lives.

Our Savile Row/Armani-clad prime minister is now forced indoors for opening ceremonies and even projects, he claims, have a defining realm. Personal safety is clearly the dominating theme of such closed endeavours.

For instance, he recently, inaugurated the construction of a bridge at Chenab river in Shah Jewna in Jhang, not by being there but at the PM Secretariat.

He is reported to have said that it was a gift for the people of Jhang from the federal government. Such precious gifts must be coveted, for, it is not every day that they come packaged directly from the PM Secretariat.

But the short cut to Jhang glory was not an isolated event. The prospective beneficiaries of gas provision in Bhara Kahu also found out that the fuel of life had its roots in the PM Secretariat (where the foundation laying function was held).

The ‘stone-laying’ ceremony of the new District Complex and another Press Club, both in Islamabad, were also graced inside the PM Secretariat.

It is a measure of how insecure even the head of the government feels that he could not venture out of his proverbial nest in the very city, of which he is a resident, for these routine engagements.

Against this backdrop, spare a thought for the ordinary citizen, the protection of whose life and property is the primary duty of any government.

Time was when major state holidays, like the national and Independence days were set in motion by open ceremonies of pomp and pageantry by the president and prime minister. This is clearly past us.

Many of us seem to have missed (or overlooked?) the fact that even the commando-general and his hand-picked prime minister avoided traditional Independence Day ceremonies this year out of the ubiquitous security fear.

While Musharraf hosted in-service and retired army officers to mark the occasion (his real constituency, no doubt), poor Aziz was left to hoist the flag indoors at the Jinnah Convention Centre. So much for inspiration!

Talking of indoor ceremonies, they are, by no stretch of imagination, a piece of cake where media coverage is concerned. Journalists wanting to report on these have to go through several rounds of security at the gates of the ‘fortress’ and, once inside, right up to the hall where these scripted functions take place.

Regardless, Shaukat Aziz is clearly not tired of all available opportunities to look prime minister material, at least for the benefit of the cameras. Perhaps, the premier is making the most of looking dapper in his sharp suits since it is almost a given in how the changing political landscape points to the future that he won’t find an encore in the same avatar.

This explains why Aziz continues to take the trouble to host these ceremonies within secured walls, when he could so easily let someone with a greater nerve substitute for him out on the site of such ceremonies.

But, then, what would those inauguration plaques mean without his signature presence and much coveted inscription of ‘Honourable Prime Minister’ before his name.

Besides, who minds making history — the unique foundation laying of Jhang bridge to name one — in the rather fragile world of a Pakistani prime minister. Not for nothing is the sobriquet Short Cut in such currency.

The writer is News Editor at DawnNews. He may be contacted at kaamyabi@gmail.com

Osama comes to Musharraf’s rescue!

Understandably, Osama’s threat to wage war against Musharraf is a big story in the Western and US media as it is in Pakistan. On the face of it, Osama’s reasons for embarking on such a war do not appear all that spurious. The bloodbath at the Red Mosque was televised live round the clock for almost a week ending with scenes of Musharraf’s commandos vanquishing the self-proclaimed terrorists. Terror was seen to be defeated by a determined ally of the US and the West. So, just when his popularity graph was going down in the fast lane due to his uncalled for confrontation the with Supreme Court chief justice, his friends in world capitals had cause to try to come to his aid to help him retrieve his slumping fortunes. So, the provocation was custom-made for Osama to feel bad enough to declare war against the Pakistani president.

But then the Osama threat seems to have come at the most opportune moment for Musharraf.

Some analysts here have even hinted that the timing of the tape could help Musharraf in his October 6 elections rather than harm him. Their arguments run something like this: All those who want to see Musharraf go home which include the civil society, the bar, the bench and the majority of political parties would now be seen as waging Osama’s war. This would make the anti-Osama moderates in Pakistan who the West and the US believe are in the majority and the Osama’s haters in Washington, London and Brussels to rally around Musharraf in his hour of despair and ensure that he would win the election to afterwards fight the terrorists who, from their threats to Musharraf, appear to these supporters of the president to be mortally afraid of him.

They further argue that even the Supreme Court now hearing a number of petitions challenging Gen Musharraf’s intentions to contest the presidential election in uniform on October 6 would find it difficult to ignore the message contained in the Osama tape. Would not a SC ruling against Musharraf be taken as if the SC had become a party to Osama’s war as well?

And in a way, they say, paradoxically Osama also wins if Musharraf wins because the terrorists had never had it as good as they did in the last five years of the military-led government. As Musharraf postured, for the benefit of his friends in Washington, to be fighting terrorism with all his might, Osama and his band thrived like never before. Now they can strike anywhere in Pakistan any time. So why would Osama not contribute his bit to help Musharraf, albeit in a roundabout way, get another five-year term?

And understandably, therefore, the Western media does not seem to have swallowed hook, line and sinker the latest Osama threat as they used to in the past. They are trying now to look the horse in the mouth. They do not seem to accept without question the veracity of the new videotape of Osama. The media in its reports is openly distancing itself from the tape making it very clear that there are doubts about the credibility of the source.

The Supreme Court could still stop Musharraf from contesting the October 6 presidential election in uniform and if he gets past that, en masse resignations by opposition members from the national and the provincial assemblies could make it impossible for the election commission to hold any elections at all.

Musharraf on his part is being seen here to be trying to use all kinds of deceptions to make the presidential elections an immensely confusing event. And in the cloud of dust that is being kicked up by the cacophonous debate of what if he failed to achieve his goal and threats of ‘emergency plus’ and martial law looming large he is perhaps trying to get away with disfiguring the Constitution for all times to come.

Indeed, the Constitution does provide that the presidential election can be held before the general elections. It does also provide that the president can keep the two offices until November 15. But there is no clause or article in the Constitution which permits him to contest presidential election in uniform. Only a dubiously self-serving interpretation of these two constitutional provisions could permit such a gross constitutional deviation.

Musharraf has been holding the office of the president all these years without having gone through an election process as provided in the Constitution, even of the 17th amendment version.

It is only now, that is on October 6, that he wants to get himself elected in uniform as the President of Pakistan with votes from the constitutionally provided electoral college. By doing so he wants to create a new constitutional reality, the reality of an army chief getting constitutionally elected to be the President of Pakistan. This has never happened. Even General Zia-ul-Haq did not dare try this backdoor to bring an army presidency a permanent place in the Constitution.

This new reality if created would open the constitutional doors for his successor in the army to offer himself in his full military regalia as a candidate for the presidential post. And after him the next one. This is what perhaps Gen Musharraf had meant when very early in his rule he had said that he wanted to bring the army in to keep it out.

And then, why, after having got himself elected in uniform through ‘constitutional’ means, would he feel obliged in any way to give up his army post on November 15 or after? He had gone back on a similar promise he had made to the entire nation when he was not even a constitutional president. So why would he, a constitutionally elected president, have any qualms in disregarding a promise he had made to the Supreme Court?