By M T Butt
ISLAMABAD, October 30: General Musharraf and his military government were facing a complex political and humanitarian challenge with the sudden and tragic death of Mian Mohammed Sharif, father of the exiled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Jeddah on Friday.The Sharif family has decided to bury the family father in Lahore, his hometown and the entire family is ready to attend his funeral along with hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis. The family was exiled to Saudi Arabia in December 2000 and has not been allowed to return. According to the military government, the Sharif have signed not to return to Pakistan for 10 years but the Sharif family denies there is any agreement and say they were forced out of Pakistan as Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif were arrest when they were picked up and flown into a Saudi aircraft.
Mian Sharif, known as Abbaji in his family, yielded a dominant influence on his sons and was said to be the main decision maker when Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minister twice. Even military generals, including General Musharraf, used to visit him at his estate in Raiwind whenever they wanted to influence any decision of PM Nawaz Sharif. In an interview with Shaheen Sehbai in August 2000, Mian Sharif had disclosed that once Army Chief Musharraf and his wife had come to him and asked him to replace Nawaz Sharif as PM and put younger brother Shahbaz as the PM. The elder Sharif ignored Musharraf’s suggestion.For the burial Musharraf will have to allow the Sharif family to return to Pakistan with his body and attend the funeral which could turn into a major political rally against the military regime.
If Musharraf does not allow the elder Sharif’s burial in Lahore or stops his sons and other family members to return to Pakistan, he would face a severe political backlash with condemnations coming even from his foreign supporters.According to informed sources the top Generals were huddled into high level consultations in Islamabad on Friday night to decide how to handle the situation as it contained all elements of turning into a sudden political crisis, specially at a time when the entire Opposition in Pakistan was preparing to unite and launch a vigorous campaign against Musharraf.Some of the top Generals are of the view that the body of Mian Sharif may be allowed to be buried in Lahore but the funeral should not be allowed to turn into a political rally.
“They want a quiet and solemn ceremony in which the Sharifs may be allowed to take part but immediately flown out of Pakistan after the burial,” a source close to a General said.Others are not so sure that they could keep thousands of Lahorites and supporters of Nawaz Sharif from attending the funeral, wherever it may be held.“The situation could turn into a sudden launching of an anti-Musharraf street agitation, if it was not handled cautiously and smartly by Musharraf,” the sources said.The funeral in Pakistan, if allowed, will definitely become a rallying point for the entire Opposition as leaders will converge from all across the country, not only to meet Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif, but to extract political capital out of the event, analysts say.
“It is such a sensitive issue that General Musharraf will be in serious trouble either way,” analysts said. Even if at Mian Sharif is not allowed to be buried in Pakistan at this stage, the demand for his return to Pakistan would become a rallying point for the Sharifs and their supporters.“Musharraf’s enlightened moderation” will be put to a severe test with the death of the elder Sharif, analysts agree.Recently Musharraf allowed the family of Shahbaz Sharif to return to Pakistan for the marriage of his daughter but Shahbaz himself was not allowed.The burial of Mian Sharif will be an occasion when every member of the Sharif family will want to be present, and genuinely so.