It's Power Politics Stupid!
A lot has been said and written about Mr. Sharif's recent U-turn on constitutional reforms. A series of explanations has been given regarding what led to this sudden change of heart on part of Mr. Sharif. To me, the reason actually is lot simpler than any uttered by newsroom pundits. It's simple power politics.
No matter what the media pundits make us believe, Mr. Sharif's is a 14 districts party (and that too with 50% or less votes in those districts). There is no way he can ever get an electoral majority without a combination of forging an alliance with many other regional parties, backing of powerful sections of establishment and a demoralized PPP. In this regard, he finds himself in a very sorry state of affairs. His stances on provincial autonomy and Taliban, and his personal vendetta against PML-Q and Pervez Musharraf has alienated key political forces i.e. MQM, ANP and PML-Q. Army for the debris of Musharraf era has its options cut out and also in some ways for Mr. Sharif's past record a section of Army is reluctant to extend him the support he had in 90s. Also, the recent settlement between the civilian setup, Army and US on key national agenda items has left Mr. Sharif frustrated. And then the PPP, for all its troubles, seems a united front with a charged-up base. With all this on the ground, Mr. Sharif's best option in the power structure is his judges. And he wants to make sure that their powers are maximized and protected. For his political survival, he has no option but to rely on his last bastion of hidden powerful hands that is judiciary. So comes the deviation from PCO judges clause in COD and the deviation from agreed upon process of appointment of judges.
In fact since his fall from power (read grace) in 1999, it is only judiciary from where Mr. Sharif has got relief and that relief has been touching the bounds of unfairness. So how can Mr. Sharif be a party to something that limits his only power base in the power structure. I can only sympathize with friends of mine who were cheering for an independent judiciary. They had been used so tactfully (yet again) by fundamentalist flank led by Sharif to restore their judiciary. Now with Sharif holding on to a bastion of power that has the capacity to destroy the political system as well as the state and does not shy away from displaying its lethal ability, we can only hope that the constitutional reforms get pushed despite Mr. Sharif's opposition to them.
We tried to reach consensus, it seems unlikely because of divergent power interests of Mr. Sharif and fundamentalist flank. May be it is time to assert the will of rest of Pakistan, the 81% of Pakistan (Mr. Sharif's party had 19% of total votes polled - included help of hidden hands).
No matter what the media pundits make us believe, Mr. Sharif's is a 14 districts party (and that too with 50% or less votes in those districts). There is no way he can ever get an electoral majority without a combination of forging an alliance with many other regional parties, backing of powerful sections of establishment and a demoralized PPP. In this regard, he finds himself in a very sorry state of affairs. His stances on provincial autonomy and Taliban, and his personal vendetta against PML-Q and Pervez Musharraf has alienated key political forces i.e. MQM, ANP and PML-Q. Army for the debris of Musharraf era has its options cut out and also in some ways for Mr. Sharif's past record a section of Army is reluctant to extend him the support he had in 90s. Also, the recent settlement between the civilian setup, Army and US on key national agenda items has left Mr. Sharif frustrated. And then the PPP, for all its troubles, seems a united front with a charged-up base. With all this on the ground, Mr. Sharif's best option in the power structure is his judges. And he wants to make sure that their powers are maximized and protected. For his political survival, he has no option but to rely on his last bastion of hidden powerful hands that is judiciary. So comes the deviation from PCO judges clause in COD and the deviation from agreed upon process of appointment of judges.
In fact since his fall from power (read grace) in 1999, it is only judiciary from where Mr. Sharif has got relief and that relief has been touching the bounds of unfairness. So how can Mr. Sharif be a party to something that limits his only power base in the power structure. I can only sympathize with friends of mine who were cheering for an independent judiciary. They had been used so tactfully (yet again) by fundamentalist flank led by Sharif to restore their judiciary. Now with Sharif holding on to a bastion of power that has the capacity to destroy the political system as well as the state and does not shy away from displaying its lethal ability, we can only hope that the constitutional reforms get pushed despite Mr. Sharif's opposition to them.
We tried to reach consensus, it seems unlikely because of divergent power interests of Mr. Sharif and fundamentalist flank. May be it is time to assert the will of rest of Pakistan, the 81% of Pakistan (Mr. Sharif's party had 19% of total votes polled - included help of hidden hands).
Comments