A year ago, Pakistan celebrated a historic first: the transfer of power to a second consecutive democratic government following the completion of a full five-year tenure by its predecessor. Finally, the vast electorate, rather than a collective of army generals, had been allowed to determine the nation’s fate and, with enthusiastic voter participation, the majority had chosen Nawaz Sharif as their prime minister.
The usual complaints of ballot rigging were levelled by the losing parties, but they accepted the result nonetheless, citing the greater good. Tolerance, it seemed, was the new catchphrase of Pakistani politics.
But a significant minority sought to spoil the moment. They pointed to Mr Sharif’s behaviour as twice-elected prime minister during the 1990s, when he hounded his opponents, whether military or civilian. Inevitably, he would revert to type, they predicted. His unwillingness to accept ideas other than his own would bring about his downfall, they claimed.
However, the majority of Pakistanis were convinced that the eight years Mr Sharif had spent in forced exile had matured and mellowed the man. They believed he had returned home determined to create a legacy of betterment for his deeply conflicted country, and looked forward to five years of his governance with a sense of optimism.
A year on, they are not so sure. Pakistanis are in shock over the Sharif administration’s handling of a series of planned protests led by Tahir ul-Qadri, arguably the least significant of Pakistan’s many politicians who justify their personal ambitions in the name of religion.
Six days prior to the Canada-based Dr Qadri’s scheduled June 23 arrival in Pakistan, the administration of Punjab province unleashed violence against his supporters on a scale not seen for decades.
On the pretext of removing security barriers placed around Dr Qadri’s seminary in the prosperous Lahore suburb of Model Town, riot police unleashed a hail of rubber bullets that killed eight people, including a pregnant woman, and wounded 40 others.
Meanwhile, adjacent shops were looted and cars vandalised by thugs believed to be associated with Mr Sharif’s party, apparently so Dr Qadri’s supporters could be accused of rioting. All of the above was broadcast live by Pakistan’s two dozen cable news channels. The country reacted with revulsion.
Mr Sharif’s administration had a chance to present a more democratic face on Monday, when Dr Qadri and 150 supporters boarded an Emirates Airline flight from Dubai to Islamabad, where he was scheduled to join a few thousand supporters and march into the capital. Instead, the flight was diverted to Lahore, sparking riots by Dr Qadri’s supporters at entrance points to Islamabad, while the man himself sat on the tarmac at Lahore for hours until he was persuaded to disembark by the ceremonial governor of Punjab province, a former member of the British parliament.
That gave Mr Sharif’s administration another chance to change tack. He didn’t, and instead ordered the registration of cases under Pakistan’s sweeping anti-terrorist laws against Dr Qadri and hundreds of his supporters.
His government’s argument is that nobody should be allowed to challenge the constitutional writ of the elected government by shutting down the capital – particularly at a time when the whole country is on high alert for terrorist blowback from the military offensive on the last Pakistan Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan.
The Pakistani public is anything but convinced. Many have asked why the Sharif administration hadn’t called Dr Qadri’s bluff, as had his predecessors a couple of years earlier, by facilitating his planned protests in a corner of Islamabad.
Dr Qadri’s supporters are few and tame. Indeed, because of his Canadian citizenship and residency, Qadri is not even eligible to contest elections in Pakistan, and even if he were, it is virtually certain his party would not win a single seat.
In fact, it is less of a party and more of a personality cult, which has grown and shrunk half-a-dozen times since the late 1980s.
At worse, he is nothing more than an alleged proxy of the military used to expose the failings of elected governments. As such, despite his animated calls for revolution, he poses no threat whatsoever to Pakistan’s adolescent democracy, or to Mr Sharif.
However, by choosing to tackle Dr Qadri with brute force, Mr Sharif has turned the scepticism of many Pakistanis toward his administration into hate.
In doing so, he has fuelled conspiratorial rumblings that he won’t complete his term in office and, quite possibly had reopened the door for future military interference, if not direct intervention – thereby rendering the greatest of disservices to Pakistan.
Tom Hussain is an Islamabad-based freelance journalist
