Of indiscreet political ambition and harnessing lawyers’ potential

By Afzal Hussain Bokhari

There are no two opinions about the fact that the general public in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province is by and large deeply religious which is as it should have been. This partly explains why the common people shape their mind-set according to the teaching, preaching and the body language of the religious leaders.

For instance, some of the religious circles in the province had recently been showing concern at the body language of the chief of his own faction of Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rahman. If past is any guide, the widely-respected religious leader from Dera Ismail Khan has been getting on well with the country’s political establishment in Islamabad.

As far as their ideological orientation and political leanings are concerned, PPP, ANP and JUI-F appear to be strange partners. All the same JUI-F happens to be a partner of the ruling coalition. It has adequate share in the booty, as the cliché goes. The party has two ministries in the federal government including that of tourism, held by Maulana Attaur Rahman, the brother of Maulana Fazlur Rahman.

Apparently not contented with that, Maulana Fazlur Rahman was said to have manoeuvred in Islamabad to get his party stalwart Maulana Shirani appointed as the head of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). Wishing not to lose a coalition partner, the federal government initially showed vague signs of acceding to the JUI-F demand but later went ahead with the appointment.

There was an outburst of anger and protest over the appointment by various sections of civil society. Representatives of SAP-Pakistan, Women Action Forum and Aurat Foundation took exception to the move. Prominent voice against it was that of Justice (Retd) Nasira Javed, the illustrious daughter-in-law of Poet of the East Allama Mohammad Iqbal and wife of retired Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Justice Javed Iqbal (author of autobiographical book titled “Ya apna garibaan chaak”).

Critics said that former CII head Dr Mohammad Khalid Masud was a “brilliant and enlightened” scholar and he should not have been replaced by what they described to be a “controversial and conservative cleric”. This annoyed Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who started dishing out threats that JUI-F would step out of the coalition which stood on a shaky ground.

Things went from bad to worse and in an attempt at crisis management Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani called on the Maulana at his residence. As the hard luck would have it, the meeting did not appear to have been very greatly fruitful as the otherwise tolerant and persuasive prime minister had to say it publicly that the Maulana was at liberty to join any group that he liked. Cynical analysts interpreted the PM’s remarks as widening of the gulf between PPP and JUI-F. Smelling a hardening of the government position which could ultimately result in the ouster of JUI-F ministers, Maulana Fazlur Rahman tried a sweetener.

Addressing a press conference at the Sukkur airport, he said that the existing political system was functioning well on its track and the opposition too was doing its job. Therefore, there was no truth in the speculation that the country was heading for mid-term polls. However, the Maulana’s conciliatory remarks did not assuage the apprehensions of the people who felt that friction between the government and the opposition had become sharper.

It might amount to talking poppycock but the rival camp even speculated about the possibility of the formation of a national government by the end of July. One of the analysts went to the extent of saying that the country might be governed by a group of four including a retired bureaucrat who had now grown into some sort of a “malang, dervish and Allah-lok”!

Reports indicate that China (whose friendship with Pakistan is loftier than the Himalayas and deeper than the Indian Ocean) has warned against any such misadventure. Political circles in City recalled the speech made by President Asif Ali Zardari at the 56th birth anniversary of late Benazir Bhutto. In his speech, Zardari said that a group of people in Punjab did not like PPP but he vowed not to be browbeaten by it. The president said he had somehow evolved a formula under which he would leave behind committed party zealots (jialas and jialees) who would continue to battle against and defeat all forms of dictatorship.

If anyone in the ruling PPP is paying the opposition in the same coin, it is the Federal Law Minister, Dr Babar Awan. Speaking at the Lahore residence of former additional director-general of FIA Riaz Sheikh with whom he condoled the death of his mother, he said that he only visited the bar councils that specially invited him. The money given to them was meant for the general welfare of lawyers and it was with the due permission of both the president and the prime minister that he was doing so.

He made it clear that his party or government did not want to use the lawyers’ power against anyone. Posing a question to PML-N, he said that it should tell the people as to why and for what purpose the chief minister of Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif  gave Rs50 million to a certain lawyer from the supplementary grant of the provincial budget 2009-10. Moreover, the Punjab CM had sanctioned grant for a bar council and an official of the Punjab government was distributing money on personal ledger. Dr Awan said that helping bar councils with money was not a bad thing but the help should not come in a secretive and mysterious manner.

The Sana news agency quoted the law minister as having said in a lighter vein that he knew that a cell in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail was being cleared for him but he and his party men were not afraid of jails. The common people are extremely upset about the manner in which the politicians are washing the dirty linen in the public. They want that the halting democracy should not get derailed.