Nawaz's dramatic exit
AFTER the events of the past 24 hours no one can say that Pakistan does not live in interesting times. After all the show of defiance on the part of Mr Nawaz Sharif, and all the stern talk of accountability from the military government, to think that it should have come down to this: a deal steeped in high mystery and a fair amount of cynicism. And what are the essentials of this momentous deal? To put it rather baldly, the Sharif family has saved its skin at the price of forfeiting its claim to national leadership. Whatever the gloss that Begum Kulsoom Nawaz may have put on her family's departure for the more congenial climate of Saudi Arabia, few people in Pakistan would be fooled by it. When they see someone running for cover they can usually make out what is happening.
With the willing exile of the Sharif family, it is not far wrong to say that the roar has left the PML-N tiger. And what does the military government get out of it? The political death of its principal political rival (Ms Bhutto having already counted herself out of the reckoning by her spectacular penchant for making money on the side). Having thus consigned Mr Sharif to political oblivion and perhaps even ignominy, the military government can now go about fulfilling its political agenda in a more relaxed manner. As for the dispiritedness to be seen in the political arena, no marks for figuring out that it can only get worse.
There is after all nothing false about the dismay in the loyalist circles of the League. If it had to come to this, they are entitled to ask: what was the point of putting on such a show of defiance? Or was the defiant rhetoric meant to put a better price on their eventual departure? The dissidents of course will have the last laugh. Only a few days ago they were being reviled as prime collaborators - so many Judases bending the knee at the altar of political expediency. But the expediency just witnessed exceeds anything to have come before. Even so, consider Mr Sharif's last self-serving act before flying off to the Holy Land. Even when he was throwing his party to the winds (if not to the wolves) he could not resist appointing an acolyte, in the person of Mr Javed Hashmi, to become acting head of the party. Wouldn't it have been better, and a shade more graceful, to have left the League for once to its own devices? But then when holding on to everything becomes second nature, it is difficult making a fresh start. As for Mr Hashmi, who will take him seriously? Not many Leaguers, to be sure: most of them are still reeling from the deal between the Sharifs and the army (with representatives of friendly states acting as go-betweens and guarantors).As for the military government, accountability was supposed to be all about high principle and recovering stolen money. But the Sharifs have been allowed to go when many cases against them have yet to be settled. Some of their property has been confiscated (perhaps to settle the fines they were supposed to pay). But considering that in the matter of amassing wealth the Sharifs were anything but moderate, it is fair to assume that even after surrendering a portion of their wealth much else remains to see them through exile in the comfort to which they are accustomed.
In a way perhaps there is something good for the country in this exercise of no-holds-barred cynicism. Even though Mr Sharif was in prison, his presence here was a problem and a constraint for the military government. This constraint having now been removed, the military should feel more at ease and better placed to open up the clogged channels of democracy. Gen Zia was consumed by the fear of an avenging Bhutto. That's why he showed him no mercy. For the military under Gen Musharraf everything was permissible except a resurgent Sharif. That problem having been taken care of, few excuses remain for holding up the return to democracy.( Dawn, editorial, Dec. 11 2000)
