A book review, especially posted for Amorphous
Nawaz Sharif says he is innocent — perhaps too innocent for the muddy waters of politics
‘Ghaddaar Kaun? -Nawaz Shraif ki Kahani unki Zabani’
By Sohail Warraich
Sagar Publishers 2006
Price Rs 900
pp 456
By Asha’ar Rehman
“You wrote against us,” is how Nawaz Sharif, in exile in Jeddah, greets his interviewer, Sohail Warraich. The man has changed. He has not changed. He is vindictive, he is not. The incident lends itself to various interpretations, as does the just-published book it is taken from.
To the agitated democrat, it reads like a lament of a prime minister who was in power yet was so very bereft of independence. To the local fusion experts it provides a perfect proof that the country desperately needs to formalise the army’s role as a power-sharer. The historian may find in it passages that can rank with the most moving lines written by Bahadur Shah Zafar in exile in Rangoon and a cynic who has rummaged through this pile of information will be justified in asking as to why, after all that, would someone still pursue a career in power politics in Pakistan. Why?
Mian Saheb’s answer to the central question is that he wants a change in the system which will free the future elected representatives to take decisions. We don’t know how realistic the argument is, coming from someone who is known to have advanced by compromise. What we know for sure is that after the initial and perhaps deliberate posturing by Mian Saheb, where he let Sohail Warraich know that he remembered who had said what about him when, he finally gave the long interview that has now been published in the form of an intriguing book entitled ‘Ghaddaar Kaun?-Nawaz Shraif ki Kahani unki Zabani’.
The book includes interviews of other members of the Sharif family, along with conversations with Captain Safdar, Nawaz’s son-in-law, and Nawaz’s military secretary at the time he was ousted in 1999, Brigadier Javed Malik. It is rich on instances, even if a bit wanting on dates, meant as it is for consumption in a land where history tends to repeat itself in quick succession, turning everything hazy.
Mian Saheb could not have found a more reputable channel to bring his case to the people. Lahore-based Sohail Warraich is famous for his interviews, both in print and on television. Interviews are quite often described as the prized items in a journalist’s collection and Sohail has a treasure-trove of them in his name. He is a gentle grafter who works quietly on his subject, asking them harmless queries about their childhood and family, and letting them tell him about their favourite singers and food. Mian Saheb tells Sohail he likes Muhammad Rafi and daal chawal, while after all these years he may perhaps be forgiven for getting his old cholay walla’s name wrong (If one remembers rightly, his name was Chiragh and not Meraj and he is no more present at his customary spot at Regal chowk in Lahore because he died a few years ago).
In what is usual for Sohail Warraich, he does not press the former prime minister too hard. Instead he leads his readers to draw their own conclusions, paving the way with subtle hints. As specimens go, at one point when Mian Saheb blames his ex-aide Saifur Rehman for persecuting the Jang group back in 1998, he is allowed to get away without disclosing the name of the gentleman who was actually responsible for catapulting the small-time businessman from Lahore to the all-important position of being the chief of accountability in his government. The identification is not needed.
Similarly, Mian Saheb ends up denying nothing when he says that Mian Azhar’s father had not lent the Sharifs any money when they were struggling to find their feet after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s nationalistaion: all the Sharifs had got from their friends in this case was machinery on deferred payment.
Bhutto’s nationalisation? After so many years of hostility, we finally learn on Mian Saheb’s authority that it was not ZAB who had carried out the policy. The actual ghaddaar turns out to be a certain eccentric doctor by the name of Mubashir Hasan. Finally getting to the bottom of things, Mian Saheb minces no words as he points the finger at the not so good old doctor, in the process absolving ZAB of the ills let loose by nationalisation. By contrast, the Jamaat-e-Islami comes in for criticism from him at many places. After years of cohabitation, the Jamaat in Mian Saheb’s eyes is the establishment’s horse that does what it is told. Like protesting against Atal Behari Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore in February 1999.
Mian Saheb is full of sympathy for fellow toppled prime minister Benazir Bhutto. He recalls he had asked Mohtarma to leave the country to escape legal cases during his regime and reiterates that his government had been pushed into a situation by you know who to earn the politicians a bad name.
In the course of the whole interview, Mian Saheb never reaches Muhammad Rafi’s. He could have made a clear breast of it without provocation if he had so wanted to. While the book is revealing in certain aspects, it is clear that the former prime minister has kept some precious details of what he knows to himself, focusing most of its attention on the general who overthrew him — the general, he now tells us, he had appointed as the chief of army staff in haste.
That was his mistake. The Kargil that preceded his ouster from power by a few months wasn’t. It could not be blamed on him, he says, for the simple reason that he knew nothing about it. The debate nonetheless continues as General Pervez Musharraf reacts quickly to Nawaz Sharif’s accusations in ‘Ghaddaar Kaun’ with a television interview of his own. General Musharraf reminds Mian Saheb of his visit to Kashmir, just a fortnight before Prime Minister Vajpayee’s visit to Lahore on February 19, 1999, when the Kargil conflict was at its peak. In ‘Ghaddaar Kaun’, Nawaz Sharif maintains that it was Vajpayee who had told him about the Kargil adventure by the Pakistan Army in the same Lahore meeting. “A (Pakistan) prime minister is not worth his salt if he is informed about Kargil operation by his Indian counterpart,” General Musharraf is quoted as saying.
Sohail Warraich makes no secret of how he was repeatedly stopped by Mian Saheb from publishing the interview, until finally giving ‘Ghaddaar Kaun’ his ‘nod’. Now that the book is out, Mian Saheb has plenty more to explain, not least about his expedition to Kashmir in February 1999. Unless he can sort out the past, he will continue to be looked upon as a man too innocent for the complicated game called politics. Sentences like “I was pushed into it” and “That was a mistake on our part” do not reflect well on a leader looking as much for self-redemption as he is for system-change.
..I was going to msg you about this thread, good to see you’ve found it, with regard to your comments, i don’t disagree with your comments..I do have minor points though to add, I think a seat adjustment will not be a serious problem in certain parts of Pakistan.the ideological issue will be a problem in Central and northern Punjab..the reason being the PML-N in particular and the PPP to a lesser extent have no candidates left in certain parts of the country. While they still have a vote bank, the Chaudhrys with the help of their friends have brought over most charismatic candidates in the rural areas.