All pieces of the puzzle have fallen in place. The picture is nearly complete but things are still in motion and the picture is not static. A change has occurred, but the transition will continue.
Election engineering is an old issue. Only the post-election mess is the one to deal with. The implications are huge for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), for Imran Khan, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the lobbies within the party, and of course, the good old Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Imran Khan has realised his dream of wearing the prime ministerial Sherwani after two decades of politics, but at a huge price. His political pitch relied on anti-corruption, accountability, squeaky-clean politics challenging the status quo but has ended up with a party loaded with the people he had challenged in the course of his career.
A cursory look at the cabinet says it all. He had to cut corners all over the place. In order to please the miiltablishment, Prime Minister Imran Khan did not appoint Dr Shireen Mazari as defence minister because of her mercurial manners. This is despite the fact that Ms Mazari sincerely believes in the anti-American nationalism which aligns neatly with the posture of the garrison today. But what Ms Mazari believes as an ideology and broad strategy, the garrison only uses as a tactics. In the age of obedience, she would cause new headaches to the old deep state and hence she was parked far away from the only ministry operating out of Islamabad.
Since 1950s, the Ministry of Defence has been on autopilot and has needed somebody who would be more like a minister without a portfolio. This is why the post has been dumped on Pervez Khattak, who frustrated Imran Khan, first by insisting to remain the chief minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and later by knocking down Atif Khan. As defence minister, he would only be putting signatures on summaries prepared by defence secretaries, including foreign travel sanctions of top officers of the three services. His other wish, to become the interior minister, has also been denied as there were other folks competing for the same slot, including the one-man party of Sheikh Rasheed. One of the original Insafians, Asad Umer, was also overshadowed by his former boss at Engro Abdul Razaq Dawood who actually had fired him. Will they get along and who will actually call the shots will be clear in the weeks and months ahead.
One important feature of the cabinet is the preponderance of elements from General Musharraf’s era. More than half of the cabinet members were ministers of the general’s federal or provincial cabinets. Worse, as the sedition case is re-opened against the former military president, two important lawyers have ended up in the cabinet of the new prime minister.
Mansoor Ali Khan and Senator Farogh Nasim have now been inducted in Imran Khan’s administration. Farogh Nasim has taken oath as federal minister of law and justice and Mansoor Ali Khan has been appointed as attorney general of Pakistan. So much of the “conflict of interests” mantra by Prime Minister Imran Khan mentioned even in his first speech broadcast over national television on August 19.
Now Musharraf’s trial is open, it will be interesting to see how this government proceeds further. The previous government of Nawaz Sharif ran into trouble since it started the sedition trial of the former military president. How will the new attorney general and the new law minister represent the state, since they were Musharraf’s counsels earlier? This will be interesting to watch.
In the PTI camp, the row between disqualified-for-life Jehangir Tareen and Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi is not over and has actually intensified. In the run up to the post-election government formation, both at the centre and the provinces, we saw an enhanced role for Jehangir Tareen. In the final stretch Tareen played the proverbial king maker, ferrying in national and provincial lawmakers in his private jet to Banigala. The new coalition partners too saw much of Tareen’s action. Even in cabinet formation meeting, Tareen was sitting next to Imran Khan. The biggest surprise of Usman Buzdar as the chief minister of the Punjab is also being attributed to Tareen. Sources say that Tareen introduced Buzdar to Imran Khan and put him in virtual quarantine till his announcement was made public. During the period, Buzdar was asked to keep his cell phone switched off.
Buzdar’s skeletons, however, went public like wild fire. Many believe that Tareen is eyeing the slot for himself and picked the weakest candidate to knock him when he is ready. Sources say Tareen is hoping that his review petition will be taken by the incoming chief justice of Pakistan, Asif Saeed Khosa. Should he get relief, he may try to run in by polls and replace Buzdar. Either way, even if that does not go through, Tareen has succeeded in getting a permanent seat at the head of Imran Khan’s table and knocked down Shah Mehmood Qureshi, first by getting him defeated by an independent candidate and later by bringing him to Banigala and making him join the PTI. In a single stroke, Tareen deprived Shah Mehmood Qureshi from taking the important position of the chief minister Punjab. The fight did not end here, as Shah Mehmood Qureshi was bypassed as speaker, interior minister and as the next presidential candidate of the party. Last week, he was sent back to the Constitution Avenue as foreign minister, a position he assumed in the PPP government under Yousaf Raza Gilani.
As time passes, cracks within the party may get wider as the razor thin majority rainbow coalition runs into roller coaster rides.
The PML-N is trying to cope with the post-election trauma. Many top leaders, including Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz, are still resentful and uncomfortable with the combative policies of the elder Sharif and his daughter, regardless of the fact that they publicly endorse them. The current rough patch has exposed one more time the DNA of the party, that is not composed of the social strata used to pubic agitation. The voices of resentment against the elevation of both father and the son as the next leaders of the opposition, both in the national assembly and the Punjab assembly, don’t go away. On the day Imran Khan got elected the leader of the House, the PML-N made quite a scene with Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Asif and Marriyum Aurangzeb leading the charge as Shehbaz watched and later made a lacklustre speech was got drowned in the counter-hooting of PTI’s lawmakers.
As the PTI announces their new leader of the House in Senate, the PML-N will get a chance to get the leader of the opposition in the upper house unless some last minute breakthrough with the PPP takes place. The chances of a thaw between the PPP and PML-N at this stage are low given the recent acrimony during the election of the prime minister. The PML-N feels very betrayed and hammers the point that the PPP went back on its commitment after they prodded the PML-N to contest on the position. The situation got uglier after Khurshid Shah and Yousaf Raza Gilani went to Lahore to ask Shehbaz Sharif to contest for the slot but as soon as they announced the decision, the PPP declared that they would abstain, say people within in the PML-N. The PPP denies that.
The flowery and rich-in-content speech of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was overshadowed by flip-flops of the party. The decision of the PPP to launch Aitzaz Ahsan as the presidential candidate without consulting other opposition parties has made the situation more toxic. Given the current toxicity, the chances of a united opposition to put their acts together to launch the joint candidate for the September 4 election of the president are very remote.
Fifty-year-old PPP is in the toughest spot despite retaining Sindh government. The trouble of the party is mainly due to the charges and cases against the former president and his sister Feryal Talpur. It got so serious that the former president had to seek protective bail in Islamabad. As the FIA probes further, the hint at the apex court that a JIT may be formed to investigate the charges of massive money laundering scam hangs like a sword of Damocles. However the situation the party is in, the efforts seem more like getting a relief for the former president and allowing Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to play the leading role in the current parliament.
There is a lot of resentment and discomfort in the PPP leadership about the problems of the former president making the party vulnerable and a in compromised position, keeping it hamstrung during big battles.
One thing is for sure: No matter what Shehbaz Sharif and his son try, the narrative of the elder Shehbaz and his daughter will continue dominate the party narrative. Same goes for the PPP. The compromised former president and his sister will not be able to maintain hold of the party for too long. The time for Bilawal and Maryam to lead these two mainstream parties is here.
Election engineering is an old issue. Only the post-election mess is the one to deal with. The implications are huge for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), for Imran Khan, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the lobbies within the party, and of course, the good old Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Imran Khan has realised his dream of wearing the prime ministerial Sherwani after two decades of politics, but at a huge price. His political pitch relied on anti-corruption, accountability, squeaky-clean politics challenging the status quo but has ended up with a party loaded with the people he had challenged in the course of his career.
A cursory look at the cabinet says it all. He had to cut corners all over the place. In order to please the miiltablishment, Prime Minister Imran Khan did not appoint Dr Shireen Mazari as defence minister because of her mercurial manners. This is despite the fact that Ms Mazari sincerely believes in the anti-American nationalism which aligns neatly with the posture of the garrison today. But what Ms Mazari believes as an ideology and broad strategy, the garrison only uses as a tactics. In the age of obedience, she would cause new headaches to the old deep state and hence she was parked far away from the only ministry operating out of Islamabad.
Since 1950s, the Ministry of Defence has been on autopilot and has needed somebody who would be more like a minister without a portfolio. This is why the post has been dumped on Pervez Khattak, who frustrated Imran Khan, first by insisting to remain the chief minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and later by knocking down Atif Khan. As defence minister, he would only be putting signatures on summaries prepared by defence secretaries, including foreign travel sanctions of top officers of the three services. His other wish, to become the interior minister, has also been denied as there were other folks competing for the same slot, including the one-man party of Sheikh Rasheed. One of the original Insafians, Asad Umer, was also overshadowed by his former boss at Engro Abdul Razaq Dawood who actually had fired him. Will they get along and who will actually call the shots will be clear in the weeks and months ahead.
One important feature of the cabinet is the preponderance of elements from General Musharraf’s era. More than half of the cabinet members were ministers of the general’s federal or provincial cabinets. Worse, as the sedition case is re-opened against the former military president, two important lawyers have ended up in the cabinet of the new prime minister.
Mansoor Ali Khan and Senator Farogh Nasim have now been inducted in Imran Khan’s administration. Farogh Nasim has taken oath as federal minister of law and justice and Mansoor Ali Khan has been appointed as attorney general of Pakistan. So much of the “conflict of interests” mantra by Prime Minister Imran Khan mentioned even in his first speech broadcast over national television on August 19.
In the PTI camp, the row between disqualified-for-life Jehangir Tareen and Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi is not over and has actually intensified. In the run up to the post-election government formation, both at the centre and the provinces, we saw an enhanced role for Jehangir Tareen
Now Musharraf’s trial is open, it will be interesting to see how this government proceeds further. The previous government of Nawaz Sharif ran into trouble since it started the sedition trial of the former military president. How will the new attorney general and the new law minister represent the state, since they were Musharraf’s counsels earlier? This will be interesting to watch.
In the PTI camp, the row between disqualified-for-life Jehangir Tareen and Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi is not over and has actually intensified. In the run up to the post-election government formation, both at the centre and the provinces, we saw an enhanced role for Jehangir Tareen. In the final stretch Tareen played the proverbial king maker, ferrying in national and provincial lawmakers in his private jet to Banigala. The new coalition partners too saw much of Tareen’s action. Even in cabinet formation meeting, Tareen was sitting next to Imran Khan. The biggest surprise of Usman Buzdar as the chief minister of the Punjab is also being attributed to Tareen. Sources say that Tareen introduced Buzdar to Imran Khan and put him in virtual quarantine till his announcement was made public. During the period, Buzdar was asked to keep his cell phone switched off.
Buzdar’s skeletons, however, went public like wild fire. Many believe that Tareen is eyeing the slot for himself and picked the weakest candidate to knock him when he is ready. Sources say Tareen is hoping that his review petition will be taken by the incoming chief justice of Pakistan, Asif Saeed Khosa. Should he get relief, he may try to run in by polls and replace Buzdar. Either way, even if that does not go through, Tareen has succeeded in getting a permanent seat at the head of Imran Khan’s table and knocked down Shah Mehmood Qureshi, first by getting him defeated by an independent candidate and later by bringing him to Banigala and making him join the PTI. In a single stroke, Tareen deprived Shah Mehmood Qureshi from taking the important position of the chief minister Punjab. The fight did not end here, as Shah Mehmood Qureshi was bypassed as speaker, interior minister and as the next presidential candidate of the party. Last week, he was sent back to the Constitution Avenue as foreign minister, a position he assumed in the PPP government under Yousaf Raza Gilani.
As time passes, cracks within the party may get wider as the razor thin majority rainbow coalition runs into roller coaster rides.
The PML-N is trying to cope with the post-election trauma. Many top leaders, including Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz, are still resentful and uncomfortable with the combative policies of the elder Sharif and his daughter, regardless of the fact that they publicly endorse them. The current rough patch has exposed one more time the DNA of the party, that is not composed of the social strata used to pubic agitation. The voices of resentment against the elevation of both father and the son as the next leaders of the opposition, both in the national assembly and the Punjab assembly, don’t go away. On the day Imran Khan got elected the leader of the House, the PML-N made quite a scene with Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Asif and Marriyum Aurangzeb leading the charge as Shehbaz watched and later made a lacklustre speech was got drowned in the counter-hooting of PTI’s lawmakers.
As the PTI announces their new leader of the House in Senate, the PML-N will get a chance to get the leader of the opposition in the upper house unless some last minute breakthrough with the PPP takes place. The chances of a thaw between the PPP and PML-N at this stage are low given the recent acrimony during the election of the prime minister. The PML-N feels very betrayed and hammers the point that the PPP went back on its commitment after they prodded the PML-N to contest on the position. The situation got uglier after Khurshid Shah and Yousaf Raza Gilani went to Lahore to ask Shehbaz Sharif to contest for the slot but as soon as they announced the decision, the PPP declared that they would abstain, say people within in the PML-N. The PPP denies that.
The flowery and rich-in-content speech of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was overshadowed by flip-flops of the party. The decision of the PPP to launch Aitzaz Ahsan as the presidential candidate without consulting other opposition parties has made the situation more toxic. Given the current toxicity, the chances of a united opposition to put their acts together to launch the joint candidate for the September 4 election of the president are very remote.
Fifty-year-old PPP is in the toughest spot despite retaining Sindh government. The trouble of the party is mainly due to the charges and cases against the former president and his sister Feryal Talpur. It got so serious that the former president had to seek protective bail in Islamabad. As the FIA probes further, the hint at the apex court that a JIT may be formed to investigate the charges of massive money laundering scam hangs like a sword of Damocles. However the situation the party is in, the efforts seem more like getting a relief for the former president and allowing Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to play the leading role in the current parliament.
There is a lot of resentment and discomfort in the PPP leadership about the problems of the former president making the party vulnerable and a in compromised position, keeping it hamstrung during big battles.
One thing is for sure: No matter what Shehbaz Sharif and his son try, the narrative of the elder Shehbaz and his daughter will continue dominate the party narrative. Same goes for the PPP. The compromised former president and his sister will not be able to maintain hold of the party for too long. The time for Bilawal and Maryam to lead these two mainstream parties is here.