Our new prime minister, Mir Zafarullah Jamali, is an unpretentious man. He seems to have his feet planted firmly on the ground. Not for him the histrionics of a prime ministerial address to the nation on TV and radio upon assuming power and making wild promises to the masses. Indeed, when one evergreen media sycophant recently advised him to do exactly this, he humbly held out his hands and replied: “What’s the point of it? I have nothing to offer the people at the moment”.
Nor is Mr Jamali billing himself as the great white hope of true democracy, like some people we know. Asked whether the anti-floor-crossing law was good or bad, he said it was good, and then added sardonically: “Because it’s so flexible”. Of course, the law is not flexible. Far from it. But the government is “flexible” in its application of the law. The law is conveniently “suspended” in order to encourage all the necessary Forward Blocs to be consolidated before it is applied with full force to close the doors behind the fleeing deserters. In Mr Jamali’s political survival manual, such floor-crossing is a matter of “conscience” in the best traditions of governance. To clinch the issue, he likes to point out that if a British prime minister could rule for four years with a majority of one, why can’t he? Of course, he hastens to add with a straight face, he is hoping to enlarge his majority in due course.
Mr Jamali’s brutal realism, however, can be disquieting, depending on which side of the fence takes your fancy. When he set out to woo the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in Peshawar two weeks ago, he assured the mullahs that he saw no great hurdles in reverting to Friday as the weekly holiday. They were delighted. We weren’t. However, now that he no longer needs them, he acknowledges the wisdom of sticking to Sunday. “I never said that I would make Friday the weekly holiday”, he claims, without blinking an eyelid. We’re pleased, of course, and the MMA is not. What will transpire in the course of his quest to enlarge his parliamentary majority is anybody’s guess. Mr Jamali’s largesse of Rs 10 million per MNA should certainly help, even if it turns General Naqvi’s much-touted local bodies system on its head.
The small matter of freeing supporters of the MMA from prisons in Balochistan and the NWFP doesn’t even provoke a raised eyebrow from our gentle prime minister. Indeed, when two former provincial ministers convicted by NAB were required to be freed from captivity in exchange for the MMA’s cooperation in helping form the Balochistan government, Mr Jamali shrugged off the concession as a necessary “discretionary parole”. Such kindly “discretion” is unfortunately not yet necessary for the likes of Asif Zardari et al. But if proof were ever needed of the immorality into which NAB has sunk, we need search no further.
It turns out that Ms Nelofar Bakhtiar, the newly appointed advisor to the prime minister for Women’s Development and Social Welfare with the status of a minister of state, was convicted to six months imprisonment for contempt of court in November 1995 by the Lahore High Court and her appeal is pending in the Supreme Court. Inexplicably, however, the Election Commission allowed her to contest the elections, while prohibiting a few other politicians, including the gallant Chaudhry Akhtar Rasul, who were convicted of the same offence from following suit. Worse, Ms Bakhtiar’s presidential appointment as an advisor to the federal government follows her defeat at the hands of Sheikh Rashid, our dashing information minister, and mocks the very spirit of the law that prohibits those who lost the general elections from contesting any public office. If many “losers” cannot contest elections, and if anyone “acting in any manner prejudicial to the integrity and independence of the judiciary, or who defames or brings into ridicule the judiciary …is not qualified to hold any public office”, how can this particular “loser” be appointed to such an august post? Surely, the lady’s relationship to the president’s right-hand man is not purely coincidental?
Mr Jamali has won his prime ministership with no small thanks to NAB. If Mr Aftab Sherpao was instrumental in cutting the PPP down to size in the NWFP, Mr Faisal Saleh Hayat played a critical role in pushing Mr Jamali past the finishing line. Both gentlemen were at one time hot favourites with NAB. Needless to say, NAB has never dared cast anything but a benevolent eye towards the Chaudhrys of Gujrat who are both Kings and Kingmakers in this brave new order.
Curiously, though, no one in the media is seriously outraged by this brazen display of public immorality. And why should they be? Morality went out of politics a long time ago. There was a brief flurry of hope when General Pervez Musharraf stormed onto the stage in 1999. But even he is not thumping his chest in self-righteousness any more.
Mr Jamali must be flushed with adrenalin. Good luck to him. Having chosen to share power with the MQM and MMA, he will not feel the need to look out for the real opposition to government and country. It will be sitting beside him with daggers drawn.