ISLAMABAD - Nawaz Sharif had a victorious entry into the National Assembly Hall minutes before the procedure to elect him as leader of the house began. Much more confident smiley, and less tense as compared with his last two appearances – on oath taking as a member and then on the occasion of speaker and deputy speaker’s elections.
His inaugural speech as leader of the house clearly prioritised the country’s economy and good governance as he avoided mention of controversies except the much-feared American drones. A special mention of a mega China to Gwadar rail track in the offing, and no mention of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, however, raised many eyebrows, and propped up pointed questions, too. Some guessed of it as a tactful miss; others thought it might be an effort to ward off mounting Saudi-American pressure. As the country’s chief executive, Sharif, however, recognises the road ahead is very bumpy, treacherous. But this is what he is here for, mandated by frustrated masses to bring about a change.
For this important day, however, he scored 244 votes even less than what the PML-N speaker got the other day, but no extra effort was made to make him a consensus premier in the footprints of Yousaf Raza Gilani, PPP’s former premier. All through his stint, Gilani took pains to remind the people he was a unique case, consensus premier. He sat extra hours in this parliament, initiated and got very important pieces of legislation passed. But as he failed to assert himself in governance matters, and propagated sheer nepotism, many mocked his claims of wielding real power that, in-fact, lied with the presidency under Zardari. Only a year into his unceremonious ouster from power, the strictly television advertisement-based election campaign of his party never bothered to mention him. Not even once.
Being a party leader and decision maker himself, Sharif didn’t need such an artificial glorification. He will reap benefits of success and will have to bear full blame of any failure, in the due course. As he amassed simple majority, he knew well the rest would fall in line soon. And they did. Altaf Bhai’s comrades, JUI-F, Ijazul Haq, Baloch and Pashtun nationalists, a sizeable number of FATA legislators, Aftab Sherpao, Jamaat-e-Islami etc were enough to bring up a respectable total. A special vote request to PPP was not forwarded, and such an appeal to Khan’s PTI was not even considered. As soon as he was voted in, one could see the self-acclaimed Farzand-e-Rawalpindi Sheikh Rashid sneaking in from behind to congratulate the new premier. Glimpses of loyalties and betrayals may be diminishing in his mind as forgive and forget are “buzz words” of our polity these days, but still it was not a very warm handshake by Sharif, though Rashid was forthcoming. Times do change. In yesteryears, Rashid was the most vocal and blunt minister Sharif could bear in his cabinet. These days Mahmood Khan Achakzai can safely be termed his “real political ally and friend”. Achakzai comes from simple, self-respecting breed of politicians, yet he comes up with solution-oriented ways to deal with much difficult tasks at hand. Take Musharraf’s case, for example. As he stood up to congratulate Sharif, he was blunt enough to advise the new premier not to bog down in Musharraf trial issue at the cost of his agenda of “soft revolution” to put the country on the track of socio-economic progress. Sharif was all ears to the suggestions of his Pashtun nationalist friend for whom he had developed fondness during 2006-7 London exile days. In-fact, it was the only speech of the lot the premier took notes of. Achakzai was to the point compared to the hotchpotch political fairy tales PPP old guard Amin Fahim offered immediately after Nawaz Sharif’s address. Fahim took a good 30 minutes plus to tell all legislators how devoted he had been to PPP despite lucrative offers of top offices by the last military regime. These are old stories people, even journalists, show less interest in, these days. Farooq Sattar Bhai’s long speech had nothing new as usual, except the repeated mention of Altaf Bhai who, like always, surprised many this time, too, by announcing a volunteer vote for Sharif in the premiership election.
Javed Hashmi came up with yet another surprise, telling everyone loud and clear that Nawaz Sharif was always and still his leader. He didn’t elaborate it further, while recalling within minutes, how magnanimous Imran Khan was as a political entity. Maulana Fazlur Rehman was the last parliamentary speaker whose speech was attentively listened to. Sheikh Rashid was not lucky enough. Sharif stood up and exited the assembly hall to prepare for the 5pm oath-taking ceremony before Rashid could make his presence felt. Like Rashid, Ijazul Haq could only address 20 odd members who remained seated till the session ended.
Apart from mentioning difficulties, all the front line legislators seemed satisfied with the way the new democratic transition had happened to this country. Up here in the press gallery, some of our colleagues noted a transition of another kind. It is sheer practical transition – PPP Jiyalas are gone, please welcome the PML-N matwalas. They were all over the Parliament House to rejoice victory, formal inauguration of their leader Nawaz Sharif as the third time prime minister. Holding assembly entrance passes was enough of an indication that they were influential workers, but their body language, attire and style had a traditional PML-N footprint. Humble, sentimental and furious, always on a lookout for middle ground, tactful retreat in the wake of fierce opposition. Bulky, loud and fond of tasty meals (khabas), clad in traditional cotton shalwar kameez. They may be small to middle level shopkeepers, traders; upper middle class to lower middle class from cities along GT Road. They had traveled all the way from Motorway and Grad Trunk Road to congratulate their favourite leader. These people had literally occupied the National Assembly visitors’ galleries, corridors, cafeteria, parking and what not. Even the press gallery and lounge was not spared by these political workers, which resulted in exchange of hot words and then brawls these people had with young reporters who were requesting them, in vain, to exit this place. The situation got so tense and out of control that Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had to come up in the press gallery by himself and get the premises vacated from unwanted people in his supervision. It took him and officials several minutes to convince, and at times, force the occupants to leave. Sensing a mess-up and possible repercussions, tactfully mum officials revealed that the mess-up was due to issuance of 3,000 plus cards to visitors though the parliament’s visitors’ galleries had much less space. But this was not an end to the story.
As soon as the voting process started and members formed lines in the hall, especially for the PML-N candidate, the frustrated workers banged outer doors to make their way into the galleries. Those occupying the galleries resorted to sloganeering at the top of their voices. As PTI’s Shah Mahmmod Qureshi pointed out this violation of the house decorum, speaker had the guts to take responsibility and apologised to media and legislators. More testing days ahead, Sardar Sb!