One man demolition squad.

Dr. Umar Khan

khanmomar@hotmail.com

Dr. Khan belongs to a Lahore based Think Tank.

15-5-18

 

Nawaz Sharif; One man demolition squad

Elevation of one wrong man to the position of authority can cause more harm than loss of a hundred wise men. (Persian proverb)

A shy young Nawaz Sharif entered the political scene of Pakistan in 1981, as is the routine with the help of soldiers in power. He lacked charisma, public speaking ability and other social graces considered important for political scene so lacked confidence which was too obvious. No one could have predicted that this man will become the most successful and effective politician in the history of Pakistan, more than Bhutto or even Quaid i Azam. His phenomenal rise has practically changed the fabric of our society and nearly created a new society with his mark on most aspects, but unfortunately most of these changes have been harmful rather detrimental to the nation and society. Counting MNSs negative influence on Pakistani society needs a complete book and can hardly be summed up in a small article, however we proceed.

MNS started as a member of Gen Zia’s handpicked majlis i shura and then became a provincial minister able to solve his own and family’s financial problems. His first move was giving generous gifts and grafts to journalists and opinion makers ensuring regular exposure and favorable news. Then he became the CM of the biggest province a few years before becoming the PM. After some hiccups he got elected as the 2/3^rd majority PM before being dislodged and exiled. Still he came back to power for the third time with a thumping majority. He has been frequently in power for the last 37years which is much more than ZA Bhutto or the 1.1 years of the poor Quaid I Azam.

After becoming the CM of Punjab by bribing generals he changed his style of politics. Well aware of his limited abilities he snatched rights of people and made them privileges only he could oblige with. Government services, postings and even residential plots became the most sought after privileges. He obliged nearly everyone who approached him and promised personal loyalty and this way most of the police, bureaucracy and government servants became his beneficiaries and loyalists. CMs discretionary quotas were made limitless and even philanthropists like Imran Khan had to be obliged by him personally. Over time he gained control of the state machinery and most senior government servants were indebted to him.

After controlling the bureaucracy it was time for the politicians. Apart from jobs and postings he devised a strategy to bribe them and actually kept then under check by directly making payments in cash or plots. This gave us the shameful operation Changa Manga and Murree changing the political scene forever. Huntington says money becomes evil not when it is used to buy goods but when it is used to buy power...and Nawaz bought lots of power.

Now it was time for the general population which wasn’t easy to influence by personal bribery. Here MNS really showed some genius and announced a strange yellow cab scheme where he encouraged people to get imported new cars tax free financed by nationalized banks without sufficient guarantees. This created havoc with the economy and banks but imparted the impression he used in his favor that ”Nawaz khata hai par khilata bhi hai” a very strange argument that though he is corrupt he shares the spoils.

This generosity at the expense of national coffers was abetted with a large stick he carried for the incompliant. State machinery was frequently unleashed against those who resisted until they subdued and joined him. Rana Sana, Parvez Rasheed and many other examples can be seen. He was generous with new comers, with national coffers off course.

“Jo panah maang le us ki baksh de khata” Jaalib.

After winning a few rigged elections he maneuvered enough to become a popular political leader who knew the tricks to attain power and in 1997 he won fair and square. In 2008/2013 elections despite some unnecessary over doings he would have won anyway.

During this astonishing rise the following happened,

His unscrupulous tactics made politics an indecent dirty game. He started with absolutely indecent attacks on BB where he ridiculed her anatomy and indulged in photoshopping to malign her mother too. Religion was also used with fatwas against women’s rule. He even resuscitated the weak violent MQM of Altaf Hussain in 1997 to curtail the influence of PPP in Sind like his mentor Zia did earlier. As CM of Punjab he preached provincialism and confronted the federal government. He is the only politician who arrested the federal government employees and blatantly destroyed their development schemes. Politics became way too expensive for anyone with modest means to contemplate joining it. Ultimately politics became a way of making money for the mafia and the unscrupulous.

Violence in politics was taken to an extreme. Shooting 100 opponents in Model town at close range and getting away with it speaks volumes about his brutality and stranglehold on the system.

Our society became transactional. Whether anyone wanted a transfer, job, votes or whatever it had to be paid for.

Society got corrupted to the extent that the term corruption lost the menace and guilt associated with it. It became a fully acceptable, rather desirable to be corrupt. Our society where earlier the corrupt used to feel embarrassed hiding their ill-gotten wealth became thing of the past and vulgar display became the norm.

Waye Nakami! Mataa-e-Karwan Jata Raha
Karwan Ke Dil Se Ehsas-e-Ziyan Jata Raha

How disappointing! The caravan’s wealth is gone
The feeling of loss from caravan’s heart is gone

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”  Frederic Bastiat

MNS controlling the resources for so long made sure that others get corrupted and hence pliable. That was why he never trusted or supported a non-corrupt individual and we see many decent people getting in this trap. Corruption and nepotism is the hall mark of his politics and way of planting loyalty. Pakistan’s who is who went along; it is still supporting him for its own sake.

It got so bad that now even the PPP elected members of the ZAB times started appearing as dervishes.

Squandering of national resources and uncouth lavish consumption of state coffers became a status symbol. Mughal style Punjab houses, private jets and other wasteful expenditures for him became a norm. We still see MNS and his ilk travelling in motorcades of expensive cars bought from the taxes of the poor and no one questions.

Many state institutions and its functionaries became loyal to him instead of the state because loyalty to his person was a prerequisite for success in his tenure. He would humiliate bureaucrats and after their absolute submission to his person he would load them with favors. There are many examples that I won’t quote because he crushed many self-respecting people into his toadies begging for his favors. Spread over decades he overcame most resistance with his peculiar strategy.

Media went into his pocket through opinion makers and particular newspaper/TV owners although a few resisted initially. Ultimately prominent journalists shared the spoils of power and wealth while the ordinary fared even worse than before.

Courts and judiciary were his special targets and he enjoyed strange unheard of judgments in his favor. Starting with his manipulation in Justice Fazal Kareem commission to Naseem Hassan Shah restoring his government to the Quetta bench judgment against their own Chief, MNSs maneuvering has been unbelievably successful and effective. When judicial compliance couldn’t be managed he resorted to blatant attack on the highest judiciary, a bit like the Pakistani version of Escobar. Caught red-handed bullying judges by dictating judgments in Justice Qayyum’s case he again got away for some unknown reason when a respected judge couldn’t find any evidence against him. Somehow all technicalities and strange logics always appear to be favoring him in the court of law. Quite a few fortunes were made in the process which I am sure might have been a coincidence.

After pocketing the political scene and other institutions it was military’s turn. The COAS was called and ingeniously offered a bribe by MNSs father appearing as a dignified social gesture but it didn’t work. He kept on trying to buy generals so that no one is left in Pakistan with the ability to challenge his absolute power. He came very close to overpowering the military in Jehangir Karamats time but couldn’t establish his absolute personal authority. He has still not given up and is trying all sorts of techniques including the Ahmadi labels.

Some argue that Pakistan’s main problem is not economy or roads or anything but it’s the moral collapse we are experiencing prompting foreigners to taunt us. Economy needs rule of law, trained manpower and moral/social capital; all that he studiously destroyed along with the national self-esteem.

In the last 37 years all his efforts can be summed up as increasing his personal wealth and power at the expense of Pakistan and the self-esteem of the Pakistanis. Though not completely successful, he certainly gained substantial mileage.

The most interesting but painful part of this tragic story is that he routinely got away with all this, unbelievable. He had changed the society to his advantage using his hold on media ruthlessly. He had hushed up the opinion makers and the whistle blowers by doling favors.

It shouldn’t be unexpected to see Nawaz Sharif’s ascend coincide with descend of Pakistan, kind of inversely proportional. His mantra of development after destroying the education in Pakistan is like the British government in India where after 200 years of rule lot was done but at the end of the day Britain prospered while India languished. Here, Nawaz’s and his cronies got rich while the nation became near bankrupt.

We have to accept that Nawaz Sharif is not a person but a phenomenon, he has singlehandedly changed and corrupted the society despite his very limited abilities and intellect. Societies stand on their morality and institutions and MNS destroyed all. He has totally dominated rather crafted the system for his advantage and neutralizing him won’t be easy or painless. Miraculously he has been caught red-handed and is fighting hard to survive politically and protect his stolen wealth. His history suggests that he would resist unscrupulously and shamelessly jeopardizing everything, even his country. This is nothing unexpected as pygmy megalomaniacs honestly consider themselves the center of the universe, around whom the earth rotates. However it has to be done irrespective of the pain it causes because not removing his ill effects could be disastrous. If he survived this situation where he is caught red-handed by the international institutions there would be no stopping him and we might see a Pakistani version of Saddam Hussain with the powers he tried to get in the proposed 15^th amendment, more than a monarch’s.

He is the last of the three deadly legacies of Gen Zia along with jehadis and Altaf Hussain. For the sake of our country and future generation we just can’t afford to let MNS get away with his unexplained billions as Plutarch warned us a few millennia ago, “The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread to the law courts. And then to the army, and finally the Republic was subjected to the rule of emperors"

Once we ensure that the law prevails and the crooks get punished we must identify and hold accountable the people who forced such a man through the throats of this nation, whether it is Gen Zia, Jillani, Beg……

khanmomar@hotmail.com