COMMENT: Ask the right questions! —Fahd Ali

The Sharifs’ continuous tango with extremists, both militant and non-militant, has made many question the Sharifs’ willingness to take any sort of anti-criminal action against such elements

Recently, a leading private TV channel interviewed Mian Nawaz Sharif. The interview has left many important questions unanswered. I was expecting the interviewers to pitch some hard hitting questions to Mian sahib. However, it turned out to be merely a feel good exercise. There might be some other suitable moment in history where the public might like to know about Mian sahib’s childhood, his relationship with his parents or his school buddies but this could hardly be the time to delve into such a conversation with an individual who many like to imagine as the prime minister-in-waiting. This not to say that Mian sahib did not say anything meaningful. His stance on Afghanistan was particularly noteworthy — that he is opposed to any effort that would establish Pakistan’s (read the army’s) hegemony over Afghanistan, which is a welcome change. However, this foreign policy shift alone is not enough. Mian sahib’s politics — both in the past and the present — leave much to be desired.

Consider this.

Mian sahib’s recent politics has been about upholding the rule of law and transparency in governance. More often than not, one finds him lamenting the rampant corruption in the (federal) government. However, neither Mian sahib nor his party has taken any concrete steps to make governance in Punjab any more transparent than the federal government. Even if such steps have been taken and information is available, it is certainly not accessible by the general public. He or his brother or his political party can achieve all this in a very simple way: share the development plans with the public and post the account details on the Punjab government’s official website. If not that then let journalists investigate the Punjab government’s accounts freely. If there is no wilful corruption in the Punjab government, then nobody will find anything. Mian sahib can easily make a strong case against corruption in the federal government by pointing out its absence in the provincial government with verifiable proofs. But then, cheap politicking is easier than transparency.

Also, one finds it particularly offensive to listen to him talk about the rule of law when his nomination papers filed with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) state that he pays Rs 5,000 as annual income tax. A politician, who with his family owns a vast business empire that stretches from Punjab to Saudi Arabia and London, should pay a little more in annual income tax — no? Also, this raises another pertinent set of questions. With so little to show in income tax returns, what source(s) of income can Mian sahib show to justify or explain his current lifestyle? As a citizen and a registered voter, I would like to know how he can afford to live and manage an estate as big as his in Jati Umra (popularly, the Raiwind Farm House). That is some 2,000 acres of land that he needs to explain to his electorate.

There are even more disturbing aspects of Sharifs’ politics. Their continuous tango with extremists, both militant and non-militant, has made many question the Sharifs’ willingness to take any sort of anti-criminal action against such elements. True, the Sharifs are not the only political force in Pakistan that use religion sentiment (radical or otherwise) to win support but then it was a Sharif (and the most important one) who is running the second largest political party of Pakistan. The late Khalid Khawaja — the deceased lawyer and former ISI spook — has claimed on record that he had arranged several meetings between Osama bin Laden and Nawaz Sharif. I would like to know to what extent Mr Sharif and his party have moved away from fraternising with such elements. It can be argued that Mian sahib’s links with such people is not merely expediency but also a consequence of some ideological closeness that he may have felt in the past with such elements. My attempt is not to associate Mian sahib’s deeply religious self with any such ideological or political affinity. Mian sahib can be as religious as he wants to in his personal life — I have no right to question that. But I do want to know where his politics stand on religious extremism. There is a good chance that Mian sahib has given up such ideological delusions but it would have been nice to hear him after reminding him of late Khalid Khawaja’s rather frank admissions of Mian sahib’s association with religious radicals.

One can ignore all the above issues and argue that if not the PPP then the PML-N has definitely learnt something in the past decade or so. One can say corruption is a menace that afflicts the whole country and Punjab province is no exception. Conventional wisdom dictates that all politicians and businessmen hide their income and avoid paying taxes. Mian Nawaz Sharif is both a successful politician and a businessman. His support of/for the radical fringe is a thing of the past — he is a changed leader now and deserves another go. Fair enough. However, where Mian sahib’s party is not different from any other in Pakistani politics is its management of the economic affairs of the province. That is one area where the N-League could perhaps have made a difference but it has not so far. The province under the PML-N’s governance has moved from a position of financial surplus to financial deficit. The economic policies being pursued can hardly be termed visionary or substantially different from those of the past two decades or so. The Sharifs are known for their love for Lahore and that fact shows itself every time they are in power in the province. Their development plans tend to be highly Lahore-focused, which improves its infrastructure in the short run but the city has to deal with higher in-city migration over the long run. All citizens have the right to move freely for better opportunities but doing so only because there is nowhere else to go is not a healthy sign. A better infrastructure in Gujranwala, Gujrat, Wazirabad, Sheikhupura, Bahawalpur, Multan, Bahawalnagar and several other smaller cities is as much the need of the hour as it is in Lahore.

I am not trying to vilify Mian sahib — there are others who can do that better than I ever would. A man who is purported as a statesman and claims to have a vision to take Pakistan out of its several crises should be asked to be more specific and clear-headed about the policies he wants to pursue to take Pakistan out of the current situation. I, for one, am tired of answers that make me only feel good but actually achieve nothing.