Salahuddin Haider
NAWAZ Sharif and Maryam speeches stole the show at the Gujranwala rally Friday night, but if categorized as personal vendetta against the Army chief General Qamar Bajwa, and the ISI chief Lt-General Faiz Hamid, it may well prove deadly for the 11-party conglomeration in the end.
Immediate classification of the father and daughter combination will be a risky conclusion, for the Noon League leaders looked apparently happy now, but do they also realize that its true impact could well be dangerous for a party, indisputable well entrenched country’s heartland of the Punjab. Will it remain unaffected, or suffer consequences will be the key question now.
Saner elements referred to the recoiling effect of Nawaz’s maiden speech of September 25 against the armed forces, and were keeping fingers crossed because the latest outburst was far more harsher and direct attack on the two main pillars of a force that has more than once drew the clean line about its role, trying to make countrymen understand that the principal role of the armed forced was to defend the county’s integrity while politics is a different ball game, left alone for those in the field to play. There ought to be no confusion now about it but somehow the opposition has been trying to see through the prism somewhat differently.
That is tragic and principal source of trouble for the PPP and PML (N) are yet to reconcile with the idea that a third contender for power can also emerge. By now the message ought to have been clearly understood. That somehow it has not is worrisome. The problem has lingered on for more than two years. The net result is worsening of the economic situation. Any further chaos and confusion is bound to be ominous.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, hurt deeply by electoral defeat in 2018, has been the motivating force, and now that major or minor players have fallen behind him, has given birth to a confrontation which is least required at this critical juncture of nation’s history.
That collection of those opposed to PTI in a Pakistan Democratic Movement shifted its anti-PTI campaign from Quetta to Gujranwala, the power base of Noon League was not without purpose. The series of agitation rallies to cover main cities of Karachi(on Sunday 18th October) to Quetta in the west and Peshawar on the northern side, with Lahore probably the principal place, is bound to have some kind of reaction, positive or negative only time can decide.
Coming to opening show at city of wrestlers. Three or four major factors have to be kept in mind. Was it a success or a fiasco? It was both, partly successful and partly mismanaged. Crowd-wise the challenge from information minister Faraz Shibli that the PDM will not be able to fill the stadium, turned out to be right. Even most knowledgeable circles estimated it around 20,000. The organizers had placed the stage in the middle of the ground, leaving little place for supporter. Secondly, crowd started to gather since 700 p.m. and within an hour the three-fourth of the venue was full, but leaders were late in coming to the ground. Maryam Nawaz came in caravan of 20 to vehicle, and a truck-load of delicious biryani, money was no problem for a lady, claiming Rs 85 crore in assets. Unconfirmed reports said that RS Rs one billion was distributed to supporters. The distribution of cash, caused chaos, which is so natural on such occasions.
She covered the roughly 40 miles distance from Jati Umra in Lahore to Gujranwala in seven hours, addressing small crowd at Shahidra near Ravi banks. Bilawal, staying at Lala Musa with Qamar Zaman Kaira for the night, reached even after 930 p.m. They waited an waited for the Maulana, the JUI chief and President of PDM until well past 1130 p.m. Maryam refrained from long speech, but did emphasize to people that she had dome to fight their case against price hike, and mis-governance, and simple ouster of Imran Khan. We won’t give him NOR, People will throw him out of power” she roared. Even a mild glance at the venue would convince people that it was Noon League show, with party flags fluttering all over, overshadowing those of Peoples Party and JUI. But Bilawal avoided siding with the view that Imran should be ousted by force. He felt in-house change should be better idea for disturbing the system would be a gross folly. Obviously the sentiments between the two major parties were obvious.
When Maulana Fazlur Rehman stood up to speak, both Maryam and Bilawal had left the ground, leaving people to guess whether the platform was really united and whether differences between them will deepen further. Keeping the PDM United still a principal poser.
As for Army, it has exercised maximum restraint. It avoided indulging in any kind of controversy, because it believed in pure professionalism. Although Nawaz speech was poisonous in character, naming Qamar Bajwa and Faiz Hamid by name, and eve questioning NAB’s silence over Asim Saleem Bajwa’s reported assets and NAB’s silence over the issue.
He still remains CPEC chairman, which Nawaz thought was unfair and accused NAB of witch-hunting. The question here is has Nawaz acted wisely, is sealing his fate in politics for good. His speech was venomous, which is bad. By the time Maulana Fazlur Rehman on his left well past midnight, or in wee hours of the morning, just few hundred people were left in the ground.
