What the hell is going on? Either the government is deliberately speaking with a forked tongue or its left hand doesn’t genuinely know what the right one is doing. Consider the doublespeak in vogue these days.
On Afghanistan: Mr Ijaz ul Haq, a cabinet minister, appears to be striking out with an agenda all of his own. He is still flogging the ‘jihad’ in Afghanistan long after it has come to an end and been signalled as such by Mr Akram Zaki and Gen Asif Nawaz. President Ishaq also told Qazi Hussain Ahmad, an IJI partner, that the rationale for ‘jihad’ had ceased to exist following Pakistan’s change of track behind the UN peace-plan. But PM Nawaz Sharif, who also says that Pakistan supports the UN peace plan, is shaking hands under the table with Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Gulbudin Hekmatyar and reassuring them that “there is no change in Pakistan’s Afghan policy”. Talking to the BBC in Teheran recently, Mr Sharif sowed further confusion when he declared that “only an Islamic government in Kabul without Najibullah would be acceptable to Pakistan”. By so saying, Mr Sharif has not served the cause of Mr Akram Zaki’s efforts to back the UN negotiator, Mr Benon Sevan.
On Islamisation: Maulana Sattar Niazi, a minister, says that Riba is Interest and that the Federal Shariat Court has justly banned it. Finance Minister Sartaj Aziz, however, says that he doesn’t know whether Riba is indeed Interest and that is why he has nudged the private sector to challenge the FSC’s decision in the Supreme Court. Mr Aziz is also counselling foreign investors and aid donors to ignore the FSC’s ruling, promising them that it will be overturned or buried shortly. Meanwhile, Sardar Assef Ali, another minister, has been branded by Maulana Niazi and Qazi Hussain as a “kafir’ and threatened with death for saying that Riba is not Interest and that the FSC’s decision is disastrous.
On Kashmir: President Ishaq confirmed before Kazakh President Nazerbayev recently that Pakistan is sticking to its positions under the UN resolutions of 1947-48 in which the option of an independent Kashmir has been ruled out. A few days earlier, however, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif acknowledged before the BBC that the third option of an independent Kashmir might have to be considered if the Kashmiris so desired. What is poor Sardar Abdul Quyyum to make of this, except perhaps to rush in support of the Simla Pact (at the expense of the UN resolutions) in the hope that Kashmiris can have the right of self-determination, including the choice to be independent and free? How can the Sardar sit back in isolation and see Amanullah Khan ride the wave in Muzaffarabad and Srinager while the President and Prime Minister either over the issue?
On the Bomb: Until recently, the Pakistani position was a perfect example of having its cake and eating it too: ‘We will never compromise or roll-back on the bomb which we don’t have’. Then Foreign Secretary Shehryar Khan told the Americans some weeks ago that Pakistan had the components to build a bomb but that it had frozen its nuclear programme in 1991. Not so, said Mr Akram Zaki, visibly disturbed at having lost the thunder in Washington to his subordinate: ‘We froze our programme in 1989 and not 1991’. So, no one in government really knows when we ‘froze’ our nuclear programme. Nor is anyone admitting whether or not a ‘freeze’ amounts to a ‘compromise’ or a ‘roll-back’.
On Sindh: The PM has confirmed that the Sindh CM Jam Sadiq has been incapitated by ill health. But he is at pains to clarify that the Jam remains in command and all is as it should be in the province. What then is Mr Muzaffar Shah doing acting as de facto Chief Minister? Gen Asif Nawaz, abetted by Deputy Prime Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan, is all set to clip the wings of the MQM. Why then is President Ishaq going out of his way to woo the MQM by issuing certificates of loyalty and patriotism to Mr Altaf Hussain? Why is production minister Islam Nabi openly flouting the efforts of Gen Sahib to clean up the mess in the Karachi Steel Mill? Why is Irfanullah Marwat occupying the most powerful ministry in Sindh when the Prime Minister is desperately unhappy about his presence there in the first place?
This government just doesn’t look or act like one. What we have instead is a pack f fumbling, grumbling, dithering jokers who make the PPP look good in hindsight, which is saying a lot. The PM’s ‘problems’ ar all of his own making. If he were cool, clear-headed and firm, he would realise that he has so much going for him that he doesn’t need to play footsie with the likes of Ijaz ul Haq or the Jamaat-i-Islami or indeed the MQM. In the final analysis, if a sitting, elected PM can count on the support of the armed forces, like Mian Nawaz Sharif, he should be in the enviable position of telling every blackmailer in sight to go to hell. This is exactly what is required and expected.