In 1992 Nawaz Sharif was flying high and Benazir Bhutto was in the dumps. In 1995 he is on his knees and she is looking supreme. If the tables have been turned, it is entirely Mr Sharif’s fault. Consider the evidence.
If there was no real cause to rile General Asif Nawaz in 1992, it was suicidal to try to usurp Ghulam Ishaq Khan’s presidential powers in 1993. Game to Ms Bhutto.
After the Supreme Court gave Mr Sharif a fresh lease of life, discretion should have been the better part of valour. But Mr Sharif seemed bent on stretching his luck when he lunged for the Punjab and fell flat on his face. Game to Ms Bhutto.
Then Mr Sharif started to rattle General Abdul Waheed. The end came when the brass felt compelled to insist on a fresh round of elections. Game, Set and Match to Ms Bhutto.
This should have occasioned a critical reappraisal of tactics and strategy within the PML(N), but it didn’t. Mr Sharif forcefully advocated Mr Moeen Qureshi as a neutral prime minister, then denounced the new caretaker by claiming that GHQ had thrust him upon Pakistan. Game to Ms Bhutto.
The little goodwill that remained for Mr Sharif in GHQ was irrevocably lost soon after. When he alleged that the elections conducted by the army had been less than fair, the generals went up the wall. Game to Ms Bhutto.
Mr Sharif’s attitude during the Presidential elections also left much to be desired. Ms Bhutto was prepared to accept Mr Wasim Sajjad as a consensus candidate in exchange for a commitment from Mr Sharif to help repeal the 8th amendment. But the offer was spurned. Then Mr Sajjad was subjected to the ignominy of being lugged all over the place in a last ditch effort to garner votes. Game, Set and Match to Ms Bhutto once again.
The ‘hawks’ who had progressively driven Mr Sharif into a cul de sac, however, remained unrepentant. Disregarding the potential strength of a new government backed by its own President, they urged Mr Sharif to rebuff Ms Bhutto’s offer of a constitutional package — which included a floor-crossing law, repeal of the 8th amendment, an independent judiciary/election commission and a commitment to hold fair elections in four instead of five years — in exchange for a live and let live arrangement. This compelled Ms Bhutto to secure her flank by storming the NWFP and installing a PPP government in the province. Then she paused to offer another compromise. When Mr Sharif again said ‘no’, she retaliated by handpicking the judiciary. The offer was repeated again. Mr Sharif still shrieked ‘no’. So she went ahead and reconstituted the election commission. Game to Ms Bhutto.
In desperation, Mr Sharif launched his Tehreek i Nijat. Ms Bhutto dug in her heels and waited for the movement to fizzle out. Then she took off her kid gloves and laid in with a couple of solid punches. Shahbaz Sharif slithered away into exile and Abba Ji was sent reeling. Front-line PML(N) hawks like Sheikh Rashid, Chaudhry Shujaat and Chaudhry Pervez had to cool their heels in the clink. Abbas Sharif therefore had to be sacrificed at the alter of solidarity with the jailbirds while Khayyam Qaiser became easy prey for the FIA. Game to Ms Bhutto.
Now Mr Sharif is confronted with the dismal episode of Nawaz Khokhar and the Forward Bloc. And Mr Rehman Malik’s hounds have made life miserable for countless others in the PML(N). Game, Set and Match to Ms Bhutto yet again.
What in the world is Mr Sharif doing? Why is he bent upon engineering the collective suicide of the PML(N)? With Ms Bhutto on the rampage and Mr Asif Zardari threatening more doom and gloom for the opposition in days to come, where will it all end? Mian Manzoor Wattoo and Sardar Abdul Qayyum are already in the prime minister’s sights. Then it will be the turn of the press. Our fear is that, heady with authoritarianism, Ms Bhutto will make life difficult all round.
A two-party system is the life-blood of democracy. We must therefore give Ms Bhutto no more excuses to arrogate power. As a first step, Mr Sharif should be persuaded to publicly disown the idea of overthrowing her by any means. She must be allowed to complete her term. In exchange, Ms Bhutto should stop harassing the opposition. After tempers have cooled down, both sides should be nudged to sit across the table and hammer out an arrangement for free and fair polls a year ahead of schedule. In the meanwhile, fisticuffs and boycotts in parliament must come to an end and MPs on both sides of the House should get on with what they were elected to do: make laws for the common good of the people.
Mr Nawaz Sharif must break the ice. He has to give up his confrontationist attitude. He must stop sticking needles into the prime minister and president. For the good of democracy and stability, Mr Sharif and the PML(N) must live to fight another election, another day.