The myth of “Made in Pakistan” was tagged to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by Goebbels wannabe Mushahid Hussain. It was meant to suggest that Mr Sharif would take “dictation” from no one because his policies and actions were based on “independent” criteria. That myth now lies shattered after the imprimatur received from Washington for the sake of the “legitimacy” of Mr Sharif’s government. Mixed with these shards is the broken myth of the “heavy mandate” which PML publicists have never tired of trundling out whenever Mr Sharif’s autocratic fiats are announced to the nation. But other myths nursed by the “experts” are also exploding in Mr Sharif’s face.
The most misleading perception of Nawaz Sharif, promoted by “neutral” observers, was of a pragmatist grown out of his identity as a grand entrepreneur. Ms Bhutto, they said, postured as an intellectual who was unable to deal realistically with the establishment. But Sharif, they insisted, was an alliance maker who mended fences and avoided confrontation, something that a cruelly divided country in the post-Zia era craved. They forgave him the fall in 1993 putting the blame on the Constitution which, they said, was programmed to subvert elected governments. But subsequent events have proved them wrong on all counts.
Our “pragmatic” prime minister was overwhelmed with a “heavy mandate” in 1997 and immediately set about remedying the situation. He got rid of Article 58-2(B) and was showered with plaudits. But then, inexplicably, he set about repeating the very mistakes that had prompted General Zia ul Haq to insert the restraining Article in the first place. He “sorted out” the judiciary and added insult to injury by physically assaulting its apex court. HE got rid of the president and appointed a Punjabi who was loyal only to the Sharif family and had no standing either in the country or his party. The party could only squirm because it was hamstrung by another constitutional amendment outlawing even honest intra-party dissent. The metamorphosis was complete. The pragmatic entrepreneur had changed into the autocrat That his supporters had always refused to acknowledge.
The myth that right wing Nawaz Sharif was better able to work “in harmony with the right wing army” was unpardonable because it never had any basis. Mr Sharif conspired with President Ghulam Ishaq Khan to get rid of COAS General Aslam Beg by nominating his successor far in advance. Then the successor, General Asif Nawaz, was given short shrift and died in office complaining of interference from the PM. The next COAS, General Waheed, had to show Mr Sharif the door in 1993. And, after coming to power in 1997, Mr Sharif’s purges have included the cashiering of COAS General Jehangir Karamat. Finally, though the choice of General Pervez Musharraf was the next COAS was entirely his own less than a year ago, the new army chief is under pressure from Mr Sharif, and rumours are that the PM’s next “pragmatic” coup will bring to the top another general of his “personal” liking. If that happens, Mr Sharif will have “been through” five Chiefs of Army Staff! So much for the army-friendly myth.
The myth was that Nawaz Sharif was a successful businessman who would bring his practical acumen to bear on the economy. But he economic disasters which have befallen Pakistan during MR Sharif’s stint are unprecedented. His first “practical” move was to persuade expatriate Pakistanis to send their dollars back. Those that did had their dollars confiscated in 1998 when he froze forex accounts. Then he went one-up on Ms Bhutto. She had been faulted for not employing an “expert” as her finance minister. Mr Sharif got rid of his expert finance minister Sartaj Aziz and gave the portfolio to another family loyalist, Ishaq Dar. He went further by insulting the Governor of the State Bank. Muhammad Yaqub, and then “taming” him to accept the revival of “pragmatic” schemes that had bled the banks while during his first tenure. Experts who had admired his business acumen now fear that his Rs 400 billion housing scheme will make the rupee disappear in the same way as his Yellow Cab and Motorway schemes did. The great entrepreneur has crashed the economy beyond repair.
Nawaz Sharif’s policy of normalisation with India was welcomed by all realists as a “practical” step. But anyone watching his media experts on PTV would have realised that it was just a ruse and doomed t backfire. Then he tested the nuclear device in 1998 and propagated the myth that Pakistan had now become “a nuclear power”, equal not only to India but to the other nuclear powers seated in the UN Security Council. Indeed, he argued that Pakistan had achieved “irreducible security” and could now develop economically without fear of any external mischief.
But this myth was also shattered when the great entrepreneur led Pakistan into a humiliating war with India. In the bargain, Pakistan is economically more broke than ever before. The begging-bowl which Mushahid Hussain said had been shattered has had to be polished, enlarged and extended to the IMF more slavishly than ever before.
The myth of the “great alliance-maker” has also taken a beating. Speeches written by Mr Sharif’s favourite Urdu journalist promised us the Kalabagh Dam without consulting his allies in the NWFP and Sindh. The Kalabagh dam is gone forever, just like Kashmir after the great Kargil fiasco. ANP is now in the grand opposition alliance and Sindh is being ruled by a minion in tandem with a policeman famous for serving The Family; and Mr Sharif’s erstwhile allies, the MQM, are also on the warpath. The “great alliance-maker” has lost all his old allies and is now reduced to making secret pacts with the sectarian clergy.
In fact, far from gathering a consensus around his “heavy mandate”, Mr Sharif has been unable to hold his own party together. If Sindh and the NWFP are destabilised by a breakdown of old alliances, Punjab is threatened by a party split. His cabinet, rarely consulted on important decisions made in the PM’s House, has been regaled to Tablighi sermons as compensation, foreshadowing the Shariat Bill that the cabinet fears will finally replace them. In September, the most faithful of Mr Sharif’s various constituencies, the shopkeepers, joined ranks with the opposition and refused to pay the sales tax he thought would bridge the revenue gap created by his extravagant spending. Meanwhile, the industrialists who had put faith in his ability to manage their sector are hamstrung by his extremely variable policy decisions even as the stock market continues to totter.
Those who thought that Pakistan’s problems wee no insuperable and could be resolved through patient remedies must now focus on the personal disabilities of an autocrat who cannot help creating new crises. The last myth, that “there is no alternative to Nawaz Sharif”, is now being put to the test for his apologists in and out of Pakistan. Having hounded the democrats to the wall, Mr Sharif now seeks to usurp the space of the Islamic fundamentalists so that he can claim to be all things to all men. It won’t work. The myths have all exploded. The emperor has no clothes.