Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Mehmood Achakzai, Aftab Sherpao, Chaudhry Nisar, Hasil Bazenjo and many others spoke their hearts out. The most eloquent of eloquent political speakers mesmerized everyone who listened.
I missed the debut speech of Sanaullah Baloch, a Baloch nationalist leader whose voice dominated the Senate after the 2002 elections. There was a stark difference whom they were addressing in the joint session of Parliament. During the Musharraf era, the addressee was directly the General Headquarters. Now the puppets are being grilled to convey the message to the real masters.
The universal factor in today’s and 2002 Parliament’s sessions was to defend democracy and constitution at any cost. The parties signatory to the Charter of Democracy were united then and united today. The other political players have also joined them, leaving Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) completely isolated in the political arena.
In the joint session, the people sitting on both sides of the isle used their best vocabulary to expose the Imran-Qadri duo and their backers. They made it abundantly clear that in case of any unconstitutional intervention they would not distribute sweets or dance in the streets no matter how bitter their relations with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were.
[quote]Khan has ended up making some permanent enemies[/quote]
Gone are the days of 1977 and the decade of 1990s. The circumstances do not favor a 1999-like military coup. Despite committing blunders after blunders, the prime minister somehow managed to garner support from the supreme institution. And the General Headquarters apparently decided to stay apolitical.
It seems the interactive theater is coming to its ‘logical’ end. After staging parallel shows for 18 days, the two main characters have become one voice. The universal demand is to force the prime minster and Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif out of power corridors. Some say both Mr Khan and Dr Qadri are following a script. Although no one has accepted the authorship, many believe either the military establishment or some foreign powers have written the plot of this interactive theater.
Inside the parliament, legislators vowed to protect democracy till their last breath. Outside it, a tent-village has appeared where women are doing laundry and cooking, toddlers playing naked, elders either drowsing or deliberating on how to make Pakistan stronger than Japan. A majority of them are the employees of Minhajul Quran, an Islamic charity run by Dr Qadri. Mr Khan’s ‘revolutionary’ crowd only shows up in the evening when known singers are performing.
For the first time in history, non-state actors (Minhaj’s workers) frisked everyone who wanted to enter the Parliament premises. The mob ruled the most sacred avenue of Pakistan. Thrashing policemen was their pastime. They slept there, defecated there, cooked and ate there and re-energized there by listening to their firebrand leaders. Some of Dr Qadri’s diehard supporters have even dug symbolic graves and wore shrouds.
Reports in foreign media suggested the military establishment was successful in weakening the Nawaz government to compel it to follow its verdicts on strategic matters.
The civil armed forces were in a fix. After the last corps commander meeting, in which they asked the government to shun the use of force to disperse the crowd, they have been receiving the beating. It was then that angry mobsters thrashed police superintendent Asmatullah Junejo, popular among colleagues as Dabang Khan owing to his physique and temper. The morale of police was touching an all time low.
Although the government has summoned army under Article 245 “in aid of civil administration,” its role was confined to protecting state buildings, including the Parliament House and the Prime Minister’s House.
The dialogue has collapsed. Qadri and Imran repeatedly vowed to either die or meet their objective – get the resignations of the Sharif brothers. But the Sharifs were not budging. In fact, the entire Parliament sans PTI urged them not to resign under pressure.
A member of the Sharif cabinet said they would not have resigned even if the entire Parliament was asking them to do so. “Now strengthened by the supreme institution, they will never resign. Also the armed forces are in no mood to stage a coupe of any kind,” defense minister Khawaja Asif said.
If that is true, PTI’s defunct president Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has exposed the entire script. He spilled the beans after Imran Khan was reportedly persuaded by ‘someone’ via Sheikh Rasheed to march towards the PM House and join hands with Dr Qadri.
Mr Hashmi is a rebel, as he demonstrated at many occasions. His allegations cannot be ignored. People ask why Mr Khan shouldn’t resign as party chairman until he has been cleared of the allegation, when he has been asking for the prime minister’s resignation prior to any investigation into the allegations on him.
The parliamentarians have lost their patience after listening to continuous mockery of Parliament by Mr Khan and his sycophants. They wanted strict action or strong-worded resolutions against the PTI and Dr Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehrik.
While trying to dislodge the Sharifs, Mr Khan has ended up making some permanent enemies in every pro-Parliament and pro-democracy political party.
Shahzad Raza is an Islamabad-based journalist
Twitter: @shahzadrez