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STUDENTS of the dismal subject of Pakistani politics will have noted a recurring pattern of feuds which result in a search for vengeance that surpasses political and national interest.
Thus, anyone confused and angered by the military’s recent intervention on the side of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah should see this shocking snub to the elected government in the light of recent events. I can imagine the security establishment’s anger at having been all but named by PML-N leaders as the prime mover behind Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification and his family’s humiliation. It would not surprise me at all if it decided to cut the Sharifs down to size.
But this petty act of vengeance carries a high price tag: through encouraging a bunch of thugs who broke the law by blocking a key artery connecting Islamabad and Rawalpindi for three weeks, the establishment has opened the door to mobs who mount similar violent protests in the name of their benighted version of the faith. In the process of putting Nawaz Sharif in his place, the Punjab Rangers chief who handed out cash awards to the activists sent out a message that when push comes to shove, a civilian government can be left to swing in the wind, while lawbreakers will be backed. I am sure there are military officers out there who are as disgusted as I am.
Benazir was the only politician who did not seek revenge.
Other examples of political feuds abound: Nawaz Sharif has not forgotten his treatment at Musharraf’s hands following the 1999 coup. Dragged to Attock Fort and kept in a dingy cell for months while being tried for hijacking, he was reprieved through Saudi intervention and flown to exile in the kingdom. And when he attempted to return in 2007, he was bundled into a plane and forced to fly back to Saudi Arabia. In all this time, he must have been planning to get back at his tormentor.
While I have little sympathy for his clumsy approach, he was within his rights to change the army chief, especially after Musharraf’s mad Kargil misadventure. So for him to see his current ordeal through the prism of his anti-army bias is understandable, even though it might be a poor political option.
Then we have the spectacle of retired chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry doing his worst to hobble and destabilise Zardari’s PPP government. He disqualified one prime minister, and came close to removing another. While the reason for his anti-PPP animus is unclear, it is a fact that large numbers of the elites across the country loathe the party for its secular, pro-poor rhetoric. For them, the Bhutto name is like a red rag to a bull. So while Zardari hardly set a record for clean, efficient administration, no government could have succeeded in the face of such sustained, virulent hostility from the then chief justice.
Benazir Bhutto faced innumerable hurdles in both her abbreviated stints in government, with the army, the ISI, president Ghulam Ishaq Khan and the judiciary all making life as hard as possible for the young, inexperienced prime minister. And Asif Zardari’s reputation for sleaze provided her enemies with plenty of ammunition. She had three other things going against her: she was a Bhutto, a Sindhi and a woman.
BB is the only politician I know who did not seek revenge against her foes. Once, when a politician who had turned against her viciously when she was out of power, was welcomed back to the party, I asked her why she was taking him back, given his track record. I still remember her reply: “Irfan, life is too short to nurse grudges.” And she was pragmatic enough to realise it was better to have foes enter the PPP tent, rather than sniping at her from outside.
Going back further, we have Zia’s cold-blooded judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to remind us of the true nature of military dictatorship. Although Bhutto — making the common mistake of thinking that promoting a general to the top slot over the heads of others would buy him loyalty — made Zia the army chief, the latter had no compunction in orchestrating a clearly rigged trial that sent Bhutto to the gallows. After his coup, Zia had been threatened by Bhutto with a charge of sedition. Knowing the PPP would win the election he had announced in 90 days, the dictator cancelled the polls and had Bhutto hanged by a compliant judiciary to save his own skin.
But Bhutto himself was a vengeful man, neither forgetting nor forgiving real or perceived insults. Many civil servants, businessmen and politicians paid with their jobs, their fortunes or their freedom for appearing to have snubbed the rising young star from Larkana. In this, he was true to his feudal values. Fortunately, his daughter Benazir was largely free of this corrosive desire for revenge.
Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017
