December 21, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 10, 1428

LAHORE, Dec 20: For once Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif wishes that he could come up to President Pervez Musharraf’s expectations.

Thursday’s newspapers had the president revealing a nexus to destabilise him among Mr Sharif, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan and the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Playing host to Lahore-based newspaper editors at his Jaati Umra residence later in the day, Mian Saheb said that this was one intrigue he would happily have indulged in and wouldn’t mind to be a part of any time. But he added that those who say that he has bankrolled the pro-judiciary movement that has been going on in the country since March are actually insulting the participating lawyers.

The meeting was Mian Saheb’s first sitting with the editors in a group in his hometown since his return from exile last month. The idea might have been to let the mediamen have a close look at the change the man has gone through over the last nine years that he has been away from the scene, seven of them spent abroad.

He chose to speak in an even more deliberate manner than was the case in the past, and allowed his intellectual guests the ultimate satisfaction of him humbly seeking their advice. There were moments when one genuinely believed that the man was capable of engaging in light-hearted Lahori conversation of his own, but given the tough realities of the day, he held back his laughter.

He looked calm and composed except when someone mentioned Saifur Rehman, the infamous Ehtesab Bureau chief from his last stint who perhaps has no role in the present, mature world of Mian Saheb. The mention found him blushing if ever so briefly. The time in London has done his Kashmiri countenance no harm.

Mian Saheb extolled what wonders a joint boycott of the election by his Pakistan Muslim League and Ms Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party would have done to the politics of the country.

He reiterated that it was a lack of consensus among parties that forced the election on him even though his own nomination papers and those of his younger brother, Mian Shahabaz Sharif, were rejected. He could still try for a joint boycott but “that would confuse the voters” and he could bank on an alliance with Ms Bhutto for a boycott of the proceedings in parliament in case the elections were rigged, a possibility which he was not inclined to discuss with his guests just now. He wanted to know, not too keen on making his next moves known.

He was there to listen, not to give in to demands. He had no comment to offer when asked what had compelled his party to issue a ticket to Zahid Hamid from a Sialkot constituency. Mr Hamid was the law minister in the last government, in the crucial days when the executive was embroiled in this battle with the same judiciary that Mian Saheb promises to restore. Closer home, in fact in Mr Sharif’s own traditional constituency, the PML-N denied nomination to Pervez Malik who had represented the party as an MNA from the area in the last assembly. So because Mian Saheb didn’t want people to remark that he had given the seat to the brother of the attorney-general Malik Qayyum. He did reassuringly add though that many of the PML-N members who have not been able to get nominations now would be accommodated in future by-elections.

For the moment, he limited himself to reasserting what he has been saying: that his return is not the result of a deal; that he would restore the judiciary after coming to power; that he would do something to stop the military’s intervention in politics and that he would launch a protest drive, hopefully with Ms Bhutto complementing him with her street strength, if the Jan 8 election were rigged.

He looked a changed man alright, changed by what else but circumstances. The most visible sign of it came when he gracefully accepted a two-minute speech by a Benazir Bhutto supporter who said he understood her majboorian or compulsions and would vote for her in the election. “There was a time when such remarks would upset us. Today I can appreciate it. At least you are consistent,” said Mian Saheb with a smile.

“When I made up with Mohtarma I did that with a clear heart…” The relationship is holding for now as the two former prime ministers take on President Musharraf’s current favourites in Punjab and Sindh. Mian Saheb’s talk at the meeting was mainly focused on the election rigging by the official Pakistan Muslim League. He was in no doubt that the rigging had already begun. Against the odds, he claimed his party would sweep the election in Punjab and would do well in the Frontier and when he said that the official PML would be cleaned up in Sindh, he was reposing his confidence in the vote-gathering abilities of Ms Bhutto. Nonetheless, he was not fully convinced that a seat adjustment between the PML-N and PPP could improve the opposition’s chances at the hustings. “The vote doesn’t transfer. The PPP vote doesn’t go to PML and the PML vote doesn’t go to the PPP.”

The unchanged exists side by side with the changed.

In a meeting with columnists and senior journalists at his Model Town home later in the evening, Mian Saheb said he saw an uprising against military intervention in politics in the making. He elaborated that when he spoke of restoration of the judiciary to the Nov 2 status that in itself was a step in the direction of stopping the military from meddling in political affairs. A united effort by all democratic forces towards this end would make the route easier, he held.

The PML-N leader said the government’s rigging scheme was specific to his party. “Ours is the most targeted party and these rigging plans were made after we returned home. The rejection of my nomination papers and those of Shahabz Sharif proves this. But we will foil their designs,” he added.

He said good governance meant transparency and that his party was committed to fairness in the appointment of judges as illustrated in the Charter of Democracy signed by PML-N and PPP in 2006. “We are making our election candidates take oath that they would work for the reinstatement of the judiciary after they enter parliament,” he said.

Nawaz Sharif was confident that the electoral exercise had motivated the people and they would stand up in case the polls were rigged. For the time being, he said the best course would be to take part in the election wholeheartedly. He even called on the parties which had announced a boycott of the election to reconsider their decision and back the opposition parties. A boycott now, he reasoned, would go in favour of the Musharraf camp.