By Kamran Rehmat/slamabad
What a frustrated man Nawaz Sharif - the two-time former prime minister and president of the country’s biggest opposition party, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) - must be. Every time he has a sniff at driving a wedge into the ruling Pakistan People’s Party’s apparent fragile hold on power, Asif Zardari, Pakistan’s president and PPP co-chairperson, pulls the rug ever so neatly. Less than a fortnight ago, Sharif found another opportunity to impart top spin with Zardari gasping and clutching at straws on multiple fronts. The president was conspicuous by his silence over Washington’s sabre-rattling in an increasingly sinking relationship with Islamabad following Admiral Mike Mullen, the outgoing US chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff’s, damning indictment of Inter-Services Intelligence - after he described the Haqqani militant network as a “veritable arm” of the Pakistani spy agency. Even as the mercury rose despite Army Chief General Ashfaq Kayani’s spirited defiance, the president, who is also the supreme commander of the armed forces, pulled a spectacular coup - in consort with the military, of course - to save the day both for his party and the khakis by cleverly luring a motley crew of opposition leaders, who would not see each other’s faces much less break bread in ordinary circumstances, to an All Party Conference (APC).The much trumpeted idea was to elicit a national response to the fever pitch raised by the mighty combo of White House, Department of State and Pentagon. There was little chance of an APC succeeding had Zardari played an overt role because of the derision he invites from the likes of Sharif, whose presence was deemed necessary to form a consensus.The PPP co-chairperson chose to remain bunkered in the sprawling Presidency — where he found time to chitchat with the famous Indo-Pak sport star couple, tennis player Sania Mirza and cricketer Shoaib Malik, even as amenable (read harmless) Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani smiled his way through the long faces of the country’s polity.It was a perfect pitch in which Sharif and some of the more vocal critics like popularity king Imran Khan found themselves redrafting a consensus for the benefit of the military but which neatly bailed out a cornered government as a result. In the end, a beleaguered PPP could claim credit for evolving a national consensus with the opposition left in an unenviable position of defending the declaration virtually, on behalf of the government because it had itself authored it! There was some irony at work here because the US was not even mentioned by name as the aggressor — thanks in any small part to the divergence of views — with Imran, a staunch anti-America vote magnet, forced to defend the missing connect on the need for developing consensus!Small wonder, only a day after the APC, Sharif was fuming at “having been conned again” at the hands of the president. The prime minister-in-waiting tried to offset the impression of being baited with question marks over the military’s role in bringing the situation to such a pass but then, this again only served to reinforce the army’s deep suspicions of Sharif as well as bring the PPP closer to the khakis as the only viable party it could safely bet its horses on.A few days later, Sharif felt he could turn the tables when the-now legendary power outages wore out the people’s patience, who went on a rampage, particularly, in the Punjab province — the PML-N stronghold and critical bastion of Pakistan’s power politics. Sharif jumped the bandwagon and advised his aides to lead the road show. Right or wrong, it apparently, made political sense for two reasons: one, it diverted attention from the inept performance of the provincial government of Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz, in dealing with the outbreak of dengue that has claimed nearly 200 lives so far, and; two, it could provide the impetus Sharif’s party badly needed after losing ground in the last couple of years or so for being too soft as a “friendly opposition”.Just as the PPP reeled from massive street power in the absence of “power” to the people’s homes, its nascent ally, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quiad of that wily old fox, Shujaat Hussain, decided the time was ripe for extracting its pound of flesh - or else it was ready to call it quits. The timing could not have been worse since the other dicey ally, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, could not be relied upon after having left the coalition thrice in as many years.As is his wont, President Zardari then pitched in with a telling orchestra just as Sharif’s PML-N was gleefully announcing an early obit for the ruling party. With a single swipe, the PPP government paid a whopping Rs11bn owed to the power producers, who resumed supply and within 48 hours the load-shedding crunch was gone. In most urban centres, load-shedding has since vanished like magic - as has the-now aborted street theatre Sharif was banking on. The next day, the president also wooed back Shujaat, who was so enamoured of the carrots dangled before him, that far from living up to his “Q for Quit” ploy, he announced his party was going to contest the next general elections with the PPP! No sooner had this bad news been broken to Sharif, followed the night of double whammy as Zardari snared back the MQM as well, which announced it was returning to the fold of the PPP-led coalition at both the Centre and Sindh province as well. All of course, in the “larger interest” of the country!The ethnic-based party could barely hide its glee at renewing terms of endearment with a system that has long fetched it power and pelf. However, not lost on all and sundry was its wholesome praise for Zardari’s politics of reconciliation. Not too many arguments there - just as there can’t be against success - leaving Sharif to wonder what did he do - in the words of Prime Minister Gilani - to be fighting dengue on the one hand, and Imran Khan, on the other. Art of the possible: Asif Zardari has left his opponents, predominantly Nawaz Sharif, right, at sixes and sevens
*** The writer is a freelance journalist based in Islamabad and can be reached at kaamyabi@gmail.com