| September 08, 2006 | Friday | Sha'aban 14, 1427 |
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The circus of the holy fathers
IF you think that the Q League — the answer to all our problems — is the best game in town, think again. Nothing beats the performance of the holy fathers gathered in the bosom of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), the six-party (or is it five now?) religious alliance.
Maulana Sami-ul-Haq was also with the holy fathers not so long ago. But he quit and now openly is on the government’s side. The holy fathers, especially that doyen of Pakistani political specialists Maulana Fazlur Rahman — who could teach a course in Machiavellian studies new lessons in politics — are also with the government, but from the inside. Outwardly they are all fire and thunder.
Say what you will about Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, he is at least not a hypocrite. With him you know where you are. With Maulana Fazl and some others of his tribe, you could be the best trackers around and yet not know where they are, or where they are likely to be in the next ten minutes. Not for nothing has the maulana earned the title of being Gen Musharraf’s most effective secret weapon.
A naval torpedo can miss its target. The maulana’s guidance system is so accurate, he never misses his. The opposition parties can draw up what grand strategy they like, the maulana can be depended upon to torpedo it.
What are the holy fathers now up to? They had led the naive people of this country to believe that they were getting ready for a serious struggle against the government, and that, as a first step, were contemplating resigning from parliament and quitting the Balochistan government where they are coalition partners of the Q League, the military’s civilian facade.
It turns out they are linking their resignations to the Hudood amendment bill now going through the motions of acceptance in the National Assembly. For ordinary minds all this is very complicated. As it is, the proposed amendments are hard to understand, the MMA’s reservations even more so. The net result of all this shadow boxing is that the holy fathers have pushed their ‘decisive move’ into the distant future. The general and his intelligence chiefs must be laughing up their sleeves.
And ‘political analysts’ — a breed deserving to be lined up against a wall — say that the general’s position is threatened and that he is under unprecedented pressure. The most serious threat to the general comes from the incompetence and ineptitude of the system he has created. It doesn’t come from the opposition. In fact, anyone would pray to have such an opposition.
Of the holy fathers we know enough. One good thing that has happened during the Musharraf incumbency is their total exposure. No one takes them seriously any more, certainly not the intelligence agencies, who know their price better than anyone else, and certainly not the great Pakistani public which is now programmed to laugh when the holy fathers are mentioned. Take Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s name before anyone and chances are you will be greeted with a knowing smile.
There is then the Daughter of the East and her once vaunted People’s Party, now no better than an instrument of her countless exigencies. Hard evidence may be elusive but the belief in the political community is widespread that Benazir Bhutto is still trying to cut some sort of deal with the government.
At least give her full marks for clarity. Her strategy is disarmingly simple: power or a share in power with the help of Washington. The American empire may be facing problems in Afghanistan and Iraq but her faith in Washington’s power to work miracles remains boundless.
As for that Magna Carta called the Charter of Democracy, take it to the mountains. A student of Pakistani politics must always be able to distinguish between appearances and reality. The Charter of Democracy was about appearances. The reality is different. Ask the holy fathers (not that they signed the Charter; you won’t catch them doing anything so obvious) and ask Benazir Bhutto. They may have their different agendas — obscurantism vs. a form of liberalism — but they are one when it comes to running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.
As for my friends, on whose party ticket I have contested not one but two elections, the Brothers Sharifov, look at their fresh mops of hair (fine transplants, you’ll have to admit) and their tables groaning under the best snacks London has to offer — alas, with not much by way of appropriate liquid refreshments — and you can’t help wondering whether these are the Pakistani Khomeinis who will bring about the revolution we all so breathlessly await.
Gen Musharraf will soon be marking his seventh anniversary in power — in private of course but, I trust, with the proper libations. If one were to judge his government on performance, punters would lay few bets on its survival. But one look at the opposition and you would definitely think that the October Revolution still has a few more anniversaries under its belt.
Friend Ahmed Faraz has returned his award, Sitara-i-Imtiaz or whatever, although I can’t figure out why he had to accept it in the first place. Friend Nasim Zehra has also announced renunciation of her award in protest against the killing of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. This is akin to seeing two shows on one ticket: first the gratification of receiving an award, then the rush of martyrdom attendant upon refusing it.
If I had been given an award, not that anyone is thinking on those lines, I wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to return it. After I left the army in 1973 I received by post a medal from GHQ which, when I made enquiries, I was told was for participation in the 1971 war. (Some war to receive a medal for.) It must still be lying around somewhere. A Sitara-i-Imtiaz can’t be much worse than that.
No, and I say this in all seriousness, military rule must continue for some more time and Gen Musharraf must get another five years as president from these assemblies rather courting the risk of entrusting his fate to any future assemblies. The discrediting in the public eye of all things military, while fairly well advanced, hasn’t gone far enough. Disorder must truly be great for the situation to be truly excellent. We are still far from reaching that blissful condition.
So let the good times roll. This has been an era good for the media. Whatever obligatory criticism might suggest, the media has never had it so good. It has been good for political turncoats, always a thriving industry in Pakistan. And it has been good for different kinds of scams and for the real estate industry where big bucks have been made.
The Baloch areas of Balochistan are disaffected (the Pakhtoon areas are not) but Balochistan is a distant place, several time zones away from the rest of Pakistan. Sindhis ritually complain about ‘alienation’ but the Sindhi politicians one encounters in the watering holes of Islamabad don’t suggest much privation. The Pakhtoons, whatever Asfandyar Wali might say, are born businessmen, better even than the traditional trading communities of Karachi at making money.
Waziristan was racked by armed rebellion but Gen Musharraf, living up to his reputation for the dramatic u-turn, has concluded peace with the militants, to no one’s surprise on the militants’ terms. The Americans may be fuming but they will put the best face on the situation, realising that with hostilities in Afghanistan on the rise this is no time to get angry with Musharraf.
So, unless I am to eat my words and cover my head in ashes, this dispensation is going to be around for some time, coming events likely to be staged much as the present team wants them to be staged. I say this not by looking at the general but at the blessed lights making up the opposition. As for the holy fathers, they remain the smartest operators in town.
