Although relations between Mr Manzoor Wattoo and Ms Benazir Bhutto had hit rock bottom in recent months, Mr Wattoo’s swift dethronement as chief minister Punjab has caught everyone by surprise, not least the gentleman himself. But the fellow had become so insufferable that no one, not even Mr Nawaz Sharif) is shedding any tears over his departure.
Nonetheless, the role of certain key players in the “Get-Wattoo” drama merits explication. Mr Sharif, in particular, has accused President Farooq Leghari of wrong doing by agreeing to impose Governor’s Rule in the province and thereby encouraging the PDF to buy off or browbeat Mr Wattoo’s supporters. Is this fair?
Yes and no. Yes, because without the cover of Governor’s Rule the PDF would have found it difficult, thought not impossible, to oust Mr Wattoo. No, because (a) under the constitution the President could not have flatly refused the PM’s advice (b) the suspension of the Wattoo government probably ensured far less horsetrading and browbeating than might have ensued if Mr Wattoo had remained in charge of the administration and started to flirt with Mr Sharif (c) a “dirty dissolution” of the Punjab assembly (“which came first, the dissolution order or the vote of no-confidence”, etc, as in 1993 ) would have tied up the courts in knots, opened the floodgates of uncertainty and plunged the country into a needless political crisis. In the event, a problem within the ruling PDF coalition was dealt with so swiftly and efficiently that even Mr Sharif has found it convenient to approve Mr Arif Nakai as the new chief minister.
Ms Bhutto’s position is fairly unassailable too. Despite continuing provocation, she had put up with Mr Wattoo’s histrionics in an effort to keep her coalition partners happy. However, when Mr Chattha & Co thought they had had enough of Mr Wattoo, she agreed to lend them a helping hand in installing another member of their party as chief minister. If she had forced a PPP-ite on Punjab, she could have been fairly accused of ruthlessly engineering the whole show in order to become all-powerful. But since she has amiably acquiesced to a PML(J) man, her motives cannot possibly be construed as an exclusive exercise in the pursuit of naked power.
From the public’s point of view, however, the choice of Mr Arif Nakai as chief minister of the most important province in the country leaves much to be desired, even though he has been elected unopposed. After three years of Mr Wattoo’s shenanigans, the province desperately needed a clean and educated man who could have provided good government. The ideal man for the job was Makhdoom Altaf Ahmed. That real-politik and cynical disdain for public welfare has eventually prevailed says a great deal about our elected representatives on both sides of the political divide. Much will therefore depend on whether or not Mr Nakai plays the dummy role earmarked for him by Ms Bhutto and Mr Chattha so that Makhdoom Altaf can get on with the real job of government as “senior minister”.
But that is easier said than done. Several questions arise. Will Ms Bhutto rule Punjab through Islamabad by bypassing senior minister Makhdoom Altaf and getting Governor Saroop or chief minister Nakai or the president of the PPP in the province Mushtaq Awan to rubber stamp Mr Asif Zardari’s dubious directives as in Sindh province? Will Mr Nakai rest content with his status as a dummy and allow the PPP to show that it genuinely cares about the public’s welfare or will he start getting ideas in his head about the “merits” of flirting with Mr Sharif and creating fresh “problems” for Ms Bhutto a la former alliance partner Manzoor Wattoo?
Ms Bhutto’s charge-sheet against Mr Wattoo has stressed corruption and mismanagement in government. That would suggest that she is aware of her party’s declining popularity in the province and is seeking to redress matters expeditiously by providing good government. If that is so, a dummy chief minister is perfectly in order. But we shall have to wait and see the composition of Makhdoom Altaf’s cabinet colleagues before we can confirm Ms Bhutto’s intentions one way or the other. Certainly Mr Wattoo’s cabinet was characterised as much by the corruption of his PML(J) colleagues as by the get-rich quick schemes of notable PPP ministers.
In the same vein, Governor Saroop’s bevy of freshly transferred bureaucrats to run the new government are likely to remain the focus of public attention for some time. For the moment, we can say that the new postings and transfers seem generally well intentioned. Whether or not many of these “good” officers will eventually get along with their PPP masters is, however, another question. Certainly, chief secretary Aslam Hayat Qureshi needs to be cautioned from recklessly going overboard to please his political masters.
The people of Punjab didn’t like Mr Wattoo because he was devious and corrupt. Ms Bhutto would do well to remember why this point is important if she intends to seek a second term. The road to Islamabad goes through Punjab.