Re: APDM strike call for Nawaz Sharif gets muted response
Some reasons the newspaper editorials are giving for the embarrassing failure of the APDM strike call. It appears that the popularity of Nawaz Sharif plummetted after the public revelations of the Saudi deal, and his dithering admission of it after all these years.
Editorial: APDM strike call was doomed to fail http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\09\13\story_13-9-2007_pg3_1
The biggest factor for the lack of response was fatigue after months of economically crippling disruptions. Since March 2007, the people have done their bit of registering where they stood in regard to the sacking of the Chief Justice of Pakistan . The consumer and the seller both suffered, but by the onset of Ramazan their tolerance of agitational politics has come to an end. This pattern of behaviour is now quite repetitive. For instance, the upheaval following the outrage of the Danish cartoons last year finally petered out as people began worrying about their livelihood.
The other factor that worked against the APDM call was the strangely contradictory image of the PMLN leader Mr Nawaz Sharif after the unveiling of the mystery of his exile in 2000. Most people believed the Sharifs when they said that they had not signed any undertaking about staying out of the country for ten years, and kept challenging the government to “show evidence”. Therefore one can now say that the Sharifs mishandled the affair of the “agreement” they had reached with the Saudi authorities. More damage was done when the Saudi envoy arrived in Pakistan to confirm that the “agreement” was binding. Although the undertaking did not weigh with the Supreme Court as a binding legal document, the people, it appears, did look at its “moral” aspects.
There is no doubt that the big component of the APDM — the MMA — did not come out fighting as expected . At least the Jamaat-e Islami was expected to pull out all the stops, but it didn’t. On the other hand, the JUI of the more politically savvy Maulana Fazlur Rehman was expected to pull its punches, which it did. It is quite obvious that the MMA did not think that this was the occasion to get its cadres out on the streets . Maybe the Jamaat made a cool-headed analysis of the failed “million marches” of the past and gave it a miss this time. But as everyone knows, Maulana Fazlur Rehman has always disapproved of agitation that might trigger martial law.