The Emperor and His Clothes
The Mehran Bank scandal continues to devour reputations in its oily, inky embrace. On May 31, 1994, the previously unassailable credibility of the President of Pakistan, Farooq Ahmad Leghari, become its latest casualty, accused by the Leader of the Opposition of being involved in a less-than-meets-the-eye land sale transaction supposedly structured by the now most infamous Habib, Yunus of Mehran (and Habib) Bank fame. The President was said to have received Rs. 15 million in two instalments of Rs. 7.5 million in September and November 1993, just prior to the General and Presidential Elections respectively, at Rs. 32,000.00 per acre a fair price for 531 acres of his ancestral land in D.G. Khan. As Kamran Khan has suggested there is a balance of Rs. 19,92,000.00 (almost Rs. 2 million) which seems to have been delivered in cash. For good measure, the PML (N) leader also castigated the President for spending Rs. 150 million (Rs. 180 million according to an aroused FPCCI) of the tax-payers money attending his son’s graduation in the States in what should have been a private visit and what in fact seems to have inadvertently become a semi-official junket with a lot of unnecessary frills thrown in.
The immediate reaction of the Government on both counts was predictable, bordering on hysteria. Not before 2-3 days had elapsed did present GoP’s spin-masters get their act together and a sustained “damage control” operation was initiated. Clearly on the defensive and stung by the accusations of his critics, the President produced documentary evidence to prove that the land sale was a genuine transaction. GoP machinery went into overdrive to show that the President’s official rounds in USA were in the greater interests of Pakistan and, therefore, reason enough to spend the tax payer’s money. There is no doubt that the dialogue with the US, at a crucial crossroads, had to be continued and the simultaneous visit of the Indian PM had to be countered. The President’s meeting with potential US entrepreneurs, particularly in the energy sector, was another plus point.
The Buck Stops Here
In the National Assembly elections on Oct 6, the PPP (along with its PML(J) allies) had obtained a comfortable lead over PML(N) and its allies but not resounding enough for an absolute majority. The subsequent Provincial elections on Oct 9 saw PPP get an overwhelming success in its Sindh stronghold, a slender lead (along with its allies) in Punjab but conceding majority to PML(N) (and its allies) in Sarhad and Balochistan. Since our people tend to worship only the rising sun, the election of the NA Speaker (and later of the PM) clearly indicated that the sign of the times was that the PPP was slowly but surely gaining strength. This perception was force-multiplied when the PML(N) failed to get a single independent or minority member in the Punjab. However, both in Sarhad and Balochistan, the PML(N) and its allies succeeded in forming governments with the help of independents and others. The stage was thus set for the Presidential elections.
Analysing this scenario, it would have been expected of the PML(N) to go for a consensus with PPP in the matter of the choice of President. With PPP firmly in the saddle and having proved its majority, Ms Benazir could have sat back and coasted home. However, Ms Benazir was faced with three major problems, viz. (1) the advent of GIK into the Presidential race asking for the proverbial pound of flesh (2) the candidacies of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan threatened to draw crucial votes away in a possible one-on-one race and (3) the seeming refusal of PML(N) to consider any candidate except one from among its own list thereby negating the concept of consensus or compromise.
The Presidential Candidate
The process of electing a President by means of an electoral college has been shown up to be an absolutely ridiculous exercise that demeans the concept of democracy. Ten days before the actual election we do not even know the actual choice of the two major political parties, various permutations and combinations are being considered.
Of the serious candidates, only one, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, continues to remain extremely controversial. The PPP “jirga” that met him on Monday night at Anwar Saifullah’s house failed to convince him not to do a “PIF” on PPP. One does not see the PPP seriously considering his candidacy in the face of its own experience at GIK hands. However, politics brings together stranger bedfellows. PPP’s support for a GIK candidacy will be taken as a clear signal for confrontation with PML(N). Perhaps Akbar Khan Bugti from Balochistan excites somewhat similar emotions but in a much lesser degree for much different reasons, primarily that he has the potential of being an unguided missile. Even then he remains in the class of mostly honourable men who are inclined to become the President of Pakistan.
Damage Control
Rip Van Winkle woke to a new world after sleeping for twenty years, this nation had to wait for 40 years since the Tamizuddin case to wake up from its extended slumber. The immediate feeling is that of euphoria, of complete freedom, the casting away of bureaucratic shackles that have suffocated this country for almost all its life-span. For the foreseeable future the rule of law seems to have been restored but the subsequent dissolution of the Punjab Provincial Assembly has shown that the potential of the Evil Empire for mayhem remains alive though somewhat diminished. For the first time in four decades, the actual rulers of this country, bureaucracy and its “Republican” political allies (mainly from among the landed class) are under pressure from real democracy, not their stunted, guided version of it. The main prop in the persistence of their bluff has been the support of a usually gullible military, in the absence of that support they have been badly exposed as paper tigers at best, at worst as connivers and manipulators. The Nawaz Sharif regime does not have time to gloat over the return of fortune, they have to shift into high gear to rescue the nation from the flat spin that we are now in economically, politically and in the realm of foreign affairs. Mention must be made of the memorable photograph of the Honourable Justices walking out of the Supreme Court Chamber after delivering their historic verdict, the shortest man by far, Chief Justice Mr. Nasim Hassan Shah, seemed to be tallest among a group of men who had good reason to be walking tall. In the individual context, the stoic forbearance of Justice Shafiur Rahman in the face of a profound personal tragedy will remain a shining example in the putting of duty before self.
The humiliated and angry President was persuaded by those he called into the Presidential Palace in the immediate aftermath of the verdict that discretion rather than drastic, desperate means was called for. The short terse release from the Presidential Palace accepting the Supreme Court verdict left unsaid the fact that a trial balloon to gauge the reaction of the men in uniform had been shot down by the Army. In the first instance by a rather vehement (toned down later) disassociation from a seemingly innocent Press release of the Ministry of Defence blatantly intended to influence the Supreme Court and reinforce perception among the masses that the Army was less than neutral in the President’s favour. When this bluff was corrected, the resultant backlash virtually demolished the psychological perception about the President’s source of strength. On the evening of Judgement Day the military hierarchy indicated that it was no longer ready to be a Praetorian Guard, with that the President’s gamble cashing in on his most recent IOUs had failed.