ON Wednesday, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan came up with a rejoinder to an Indian minister’s war threat. In the process, he added to the latest spurt of statements that needed to be a little contained. The interior minister had to come up with a strong reaction to the Indian provocation. That he needed to remind the people of his country that its defence was in safe hands cannot be disputed. What he was not required to do was to compare his country with any other in relation to India.

Chaudhry Nisar reminded the provocateurs in an increasingly in-the-face New Delhi to not confuse Pakistan with Myanmar. This was an unnecessary jibe at Myanmar; that too, at a time when the whole world can find other genuine reasons to criticise severely those calling the shots in the erstwhile Burma.

The Pakistani discourse sets a condition for those wanting to condemn the attacks on the Rohingyas. An aspirant is told, often in an intimidating tone, to first condemn all forms of persecution and genocides happening against the religious minorities at home to qualify for a comment on the state of the Rohingyas, known to be a group under assault at a distance. Strange as the logic may sound, it says that a statement about a minority in Myanmar would be one too many if it is not backed by an expression of categorical views on issues that Pakistan is faced with.

To be honest, the conditions placed on speaking for and about the Rohingyas are not the subject of what you would call the mainstream media. They are confined to the parallel media while the mainstream channels and papers go about collecting their usual fill of unwanted sayings. Like the outburst by the redoubtable minister of state for power that enabled Hyderabad to hog the headlines this week — and not because of what the city owed to Wapda.

PML-N is doing all it can to keep its reputation as a party that needs to be careful with its observations.

The details say Abid Sher Ali was incensed by the nomination of the men under his command in an FIR about the death of a donkey. The poor animal had apparently been killed by a downed live wire, not a rare instance in the country. The rare part was that the owner went to the police and that the police actually registered an FIR accusing some officials of negligence. If this chain of the unusual came about to get the severest response from the minister who happened to be visiting Hyderabad, then the scheme was extremely successful. It did bring out the old Abid Sher shouting and demanding to be booked and arrested over the ‘offence’.

Only well-wishers would one more time issue reminders that the ferocity with which the minister had reacted was uncalled for in ties where so much stress was placed on conserving energy. There would probably again be advisers seeking the elders in the PML-N to have a quiet word with Abid Sher. The problem is that the same men who should have been calming down the angry minister are prone to carelessly dropping an extra, unnecessary statement along the way.

Clearly, a lot many from amongst those who matter in this country are increasingly being urged to not just state their position, but state it in a manner where the message is accompanied by some amount of emotion. A chief election commissioner today feels compelled to not just issue an explanation to streamline the debate about a local government election in a province and about the possibility of a re-poll, he chooses to do it with a flourish that was once not associated with officers of the state. He points out that a re-election is not child’s play, which captures the depth and breadth of his concern aptly, and renders anything else he says on the subject as surplus.

On the subject of election and unwanted statements, some recent instances can be cited here. As a specimen, what on earth encouraged Khursheed Shah to predict that Gilgit-Baltistan’s was going to be a vote contested by his waning PPP and a PML-N on the rise? Shah spoke just when the people in Gilgit-Baltistan were about to vote, and must now investigate the sources his party has apparently been basing its grand projections on.

The promise, the heat of the moment does often dictate sentences that appear to, at least initially, overstate, like the one that came out of the most respected Mian Iftikhar Husain of the ANP after his arrest recently. Without being unfair to the stalwart, it was a bit odd really to hear him advising the PTI government to do only what the PTI had the strength to withstand later. That call had an air of vengeance about it that was not very much in sync with the larger-than-life image that Mian Iftikhar has built for himself.

Yet another poll-related statement that echoed in recent days was the famous old one which had the no-nonsense Shahbaz Sharif promising to punish PPP’s fate holder Asif Ali Zardari on the streets of Lahore post-2013 elections. But as an apologetic Punjab chief minister was yet again reminded about the announcement by a bunch of mischievous Karachi journalists, PML-N was doing all it could to keep its reputation as a party that needed to be careful with its observations. One which caught the eye was finance minister Ishaq Dar’s curt ordering out of a journalist at a post-budget briefing. However, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif kept the tradition going, dampening hopes that someone senior enough would eventually get round to talking some sense to talkative ministers such as Abid Sher Ali.

Two unwanted statements escaped the prime minister at the recent metro bus launch. He said something about military rule having brought wars upon Pakistan and how the residents of Rawalpindi and Islamabad must be ruing having not voted for PML-N in the last election. He didn’t need to.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2015

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