As law enforcement agencies up the ante against Pakistan Peoples Party, former president Asif Ali Zardari alleged on Monday Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is repeating politics of victimisation, which was prevalent in the 1990s. In a statement issued from London, the former president said at a time when the country’s innocent citizens are being killed by indiscriminate shelling in border villages by the enemy and Pakistan Army was fighting a decisive war against terrorists, PM Nawaz instead of challenging the real enemy was targeting the PPP and other political opponents. Zardari has primarily accused Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for reverting to the revenge politics of the 1990s. The accusation was a surprise since neither Nawaz nor the PML-N has been the face of the current operation in Sindh and Karachi – although they seem to have supported it rather enthusiastically. While Zardari pointed to the countrywide actions against PPP leaders, which included the arrests of Qasim Zia, Senator Bangash’s son and Dr Asim, and arrest warrants for Yousaf Raza Gilani and Amin Fahim. There is no argument with the fact that both corruption and patronage of terrorism are deep rooted political ills plaguing the country, and in principle the efforts of the concerned bodies to eliminate them should be welcomed. But it is becoming clear by the day that the way in which the present anti-corruption drive is being carried out is highly partisan in nature and hence cannot be viewed as being politically neutral or indeed as a sign of better things to come. It smells no different from the various anti-corruption drives carried out by regimes in the past that were unmistakably sham and politically motivated. The fact that a federal body, the FIA in this case, is carrying out an operation which has the members of the ruling provincial party in its crosshairs, and is doing so without taking the sitting chief minister into confidence in a flagrant violation of provincial autonomy, which is a key feature of the new democratic overhaul of the Pakistani political system under the 18th amendment, means that the response of the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP’s) leadership has legitimate grounds. The pattern of the anti-corruption drive is becoming clear, as two major opposition parties have become targets in quick succession, with PPP’s grievances being preceded by those of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM). The current drive therefore is doing little to expose corruption to its very core. Instead it is only muddying the waters further and encouraging the divisive politics of victimisation. The PML-N for its part maintains that it still respects the Charter and denies that the Rangers’ and FIA’s operation is being directed by it. Instead, much like Qaim Ali Shah in Sindh, Nawaz Sharif pleads ignorance and claims that he is trying to stop the relevant agencies from going after the PPP. Two crucial readings can be made of this confounding stance by the PML-N. If, in Shakespeare’s words, they doth protest too much, and are in fact behind this drive, then this is a disingenuous regime sowing the seeds of its own destruction by encouraging an opposition revolt. However, if they are being honest, admitting their lack of control over their own agencies so openly, it is a testament to their powerlessness while in the seat of power. This could end up shredding their credibility and expose them as a party merely content with being in office while not being fully in charge. In either case, the whole saga reveals that the brief candle of democracy lit by the CoD is now flickering in the wind. If the current drive is indeed a concerted attack on the political class by self-directed federal bodies, one has to wonder who is next.
pk.shafaqna.com
