To understand why Nawaz Sharif is so beside himself with the rage, one is reminded of the jungle tale of the Lion and the Ass. This is the “sher ban, sher ban” story which has been the cause of much mirth in gatherings and around campfires.
When the Lion, the king of the jungle, was hard done by the Ass in a contest of wills and some nether parts, the Lion gained monopoly over writhing in agony and blazing anger. Imagine therefore Nawaz Sharif’s pain and suffering. This un-maned Lion of the Punjab, has for long years yearned for the ” Amir ul Monin-niyat” over our unfortunate land — a land he and his family have despoiled and ravaged in an accursed partnership with Zardari. When such a Lion is unceremoniously bundled out by the Court for eating stolen meat, what is left to him but to rub his sore posterior and caterwaul incessantly in front of hastily arranged and poorly attended corner meetings! And when the king of the jungle gives a call, and only a few rats appear, it hurts all the more and rubs salt where it hurts most. And thus his hollering has grown louder and more hoarse with the passage of time and the realization that, contrary to his own immense estimation of himself, when he was booted out, all that was left behind was a pathetic little man with a sore posterior, and the stolen millions under threat of being recovered by the plundered state.
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This story of Nawaz Sharif’s soaring ambitions and flights of fancy, which took him quite literally and frighteningly to an inch of being anointed Amir ul Momineen, where he was to rub shoulders with the likes of Omar and Ali, is a very amazing one indeed. But for a handful of senators who could not be bought off in time [and thus the 15nth Amendment to the Constitution could not be rammed through] we would have been condemned to hearing the Friday khutba read in his name for the last twenty years and counting. This is how close Pakistan came to falling in the snare of “democracy” as understood by its greatest champion!
His services to the cause of democracy have indeed been legion. Just examine a few of them, which actually go a long way to show his democratic credentials.
–He was chosen by Governor Jilani, to become finance minister of Punjab, though he could not spell the name of his office.
–He was then catapulted to the chief ministership of Punjab, by the helping hand of Zia ul Haq.
–He helped bring down Junejo, his leader in parliament, at the behest of Zia.
–He twice conspired, and successfully, to bring down Benazir Bhutto’s successive governments.
–He took funds from the ISI to fund at least one of his election campaigns.
–He had the Supreme Court of Pakistan physically attacked by his goon squad, with the me- lords having to literally scurry out of the windows of the court to save their hides from the democratic fervour of his cohorts.
–He quite literally bought off judges of the highest court to launch a coup against a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. And the moola, if you please, was distributed by none other than a a retired judge himself, in the shape of Mr Justice Rafique Tarrar, who was eventually made the President of Pakistan by him as a payback for services rendered.
–He was involved in conspiring constantly against every Army Chief who held this office under him. He could just not abide the thought of anyone not bending down to him.
Wouldn’t you say that this list of services which he performed in the cause of “democracy” is impressive enough on its own, and good enough to leave his democratic credentials with no other taint attached to them, than that of too much zest!
But this is chicken feed when you consider the steps, he took immediately preceding his failed vault to becoming Amir ul Momineen. Some of these were as follows:
–He did away with the power of the President to dismiss the Prime Minister on any grounds. This removed a check on the prime minister which created an imbalance for which the state is now paying, as it is being remorselessly hollowed out without let or hindrance.
–He took away the power of his own parliamentary party to remove him as prime minister and appoint another in his place. He thus destroyed a fundamental parliamentary right of those sitting in parliament and cut the spirit of parliamentary democracy at its root.
–He trimmed the powers of the Chief Justice to nominate judges, and made such alterations in the procedure that he could pack the courts with his own nominees. Thus he made arrangements to align the judiciary with himself.
–He catapulted the mercenary Rafique Tarrar to the office of President. This is the same Rafiq Tarrar who not only bought judges for him, but also kept him amused with dirty jokes! This ensured that the way was clear for his last move.
At this stage, all that remained was for him to get the 15nth Amendment passed through parliament which would have catapulted him to the sublime realm of becoming God’s vicar on earth. Had he succeeded, we would have had the Quran, the Sunnah and Nawaz Sharif’s interpretation of these scriptures as our final law! But God, and a few unpurchased senators decided otherwise.
But it did not end there. As the leader of the “friendly” opposition, in unholy alliance with Asif Zardari, he helped bring about the 18 Amendment to the constitution. Among other things this Amendment:
–Substantially changed the basic political structure of the state from a federal, to a confederal arrangement.
–Gave him leave to become P.M for an unprecedented third term.
–Further assisted self-perpetuation of the goons in power to distort the Election Commission in a manner, such that it became easy to maneuver so that elections could be rigged and managed.
–The mechanism to put interim governments in place to conduct the elections ensured not neutral, but “friendly” governments which would assist the two strongest parties to “manage” the elections.
–Ensured that no member of the legislature could vote against his party in parliament, thus violating a vital principle of parliamentary dissent, making it a party dictatorship.
–Took away about every power of the President, thus clearing away any check on the P.M, pushing the system more towards autocracy.
No one in Pakistan has craved absolute power as has Nawaz Sharif. No one has chased this power with greater assiduity and devotion. And none has been more inimical to the cause of justice, good governance, or democracy than him. Being driven thus, what makes him terribly dangerous is that his brain, if he ever had it, has slithered down beyond his intestines, and got itself mixed up in a terrible mess. He is thus a brainless moron running amok for total power, and because his mind cannot be reached, no one can stop him. And that part of him which can be reached to bring him to a halt, few are willing to reach out and touch.
The powers which the 15nth Amendment would have given him, would have been absolutely frightening. These powers would, in no wise have be lesser than the untrammeled power which the Enabling Act bestowed on Adolf Hitler, which created a legalized dictatorship in Germany. But there were differences between him and Hitler. Hitler was a patriot who was awarded the Iron Cross for showing courage in face of the enemy, in the first great war, while Nawaz and family merely dealt in iron.
Unfortunately, their iron-monger mentality suffered no moderation on account of their long years in power. The state remained the anvil on which the hammer of inequity and injustice has beaten relentlessly for thirty-five years which saw no intrusion of mercy to soften the blows suffered by the state. And secondly, for all his villainy, no charge of financial corruption can be laid at Hitler’s door, except that Martin Bormann levied a duty on the post office for issuing stamps which bore Hitler’s image–and this is disputed. But the ownership of London Flats is no longer in dispute. And as things are progressing, the lists of assets bought by this family, with funds stolen from Pakistan, are daily becoming longer.
His love for total power was so maniacal that he forced General Karamat’s resignation merely for suggesting the formation of a National Security Council. He saw this as an advocacy of dilution of his power which he had collected with such devotion. His mindset and arrogance can so clearly be seen manifested in his act of leaving the office of Prime Minister to Maryam when he left Pakistan for medical treatment. And she enjoyed the experience so much, that she is loathe letting go of the dream, which was a nightmare for Pakistan. He is livid with the Supreme Court only because it has stripped him of the immunity from law which he had worked so hard to build; and he hates the Army Chief because General Bajwa has chosen to follow the constitution, instead of coming out and salvaging the ex-PM’s sacred posterior. And because the Court and the Army Chief have decided to stand with the interests of Pakistan instead of safeguarding those of the Sharif family, this family and its bunch of “gali galoch” clowns prefer to see a conspiracy between the two.
So, as I think about the melancholy and most incredible termination of the soaring ambitions of the Lion of Punjab, I fall in grateful supplication to God Almighty for having supplied this nation with an Ass just in the nick of time, to have sent the Lion howling into wilderness.
If I had the wherewithal, I would have erected a statue of the Ass outside the gate of Jati Umra, so that each time the Lion ventured out, the sight of the Ass would give him the trotters, forcing him to run back to the tranquil environs of a toilet, and remain there confined for the rest of his natural life.
P,S By now you must be trying to guess who the Ass is? Well, so am I. There are so many possible contenders for this title, it could be any one of them. Or we may have a curious case of several Asses, acting as one. And if they were playing the ass in turns, Nawaz Sharif’s hurt must clearly be Homeric.