After Altaf Hussain’s call for Indian and NATO intervention in Karachi, Pakistanis have no doubts that he is indeed an enemy of the state. The Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali rightly accused the MQM leader of waging war against the state. But Pakistanis wonder if the government is really sincere in pursuing legal action against the MQM leader for his hate speeches, which incited violence against the state as well as hurled highly derogatory remarks against the country’s security institutions and their leadership.

What happened to the Interior Ministry’s letter a few weeks ago to British government seeking details of Indian RAW’s financial support to Altaf Hussain? Why is government hesitant to lodge any diplomatic protest with the British government to stop Altaf’s venomous speeches from London? Or is there a conflict of interest to protect the PML-N top leadership’s huge business and real estate empire in UK?
The hypocrisy is clearly visible. Whereas Chaudhry Nisar Ali vowed to prepare a legal reference against Altaf Hussain for his anti Pakistan activities, our worthy Speaker of National Assembly negotiated with him to withdraw MQM’s resolution related to PTI’s de seating from the parliament. Such a political compromise only helped Altaf Hussain become politically relevant and maintain his nuisance value while working against state’s interests from London.

The ongoing drama of en masse resignations by MQM parliamentarians may yet be another attempt to revive Altaf Hussain’s political status and image as MQM’s  supreme leader. Dr Faroq Sattar has stated  that only Altaf Hussain holds authority to take back the resignations.
We may now see both direct as well as indirect contacts by a desperate ruling party leadership and its allies to literally beg Altaf Hussain to direct his parliamentarians to withdraw the resignations. National security interests will be sacrificed at the altar of shameful political expediency and compromise.

The ruling party may be too willing to submit to Altaf Hussain’s blackmail and give concessions viz a viz Karachi operation, or may even be ready to pend the legal reference against him. Who knows there may be a behind the scenes deal to further drag the handing over of Imran Farooq’s killers in return for withdrawal of MQM’s resignations.

But PML-N must be grateful to MQM for diverting the media as well nation’s focus from the Kasur tragedy. With PML-N ‘s expertise in media’s management, the MQM issue is likely to drag on for a few days till Kasur becomes a forgotten chapter, just like the Model Town tragedy.
With the crafty Zardari already in London a Zardari-Altaf -Nawaz Sharif nexus or understanding may be emerging to slow down Karachi operation and limiting anti corruption/terror financing operations by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Whether the Army and Rangers would allow such conspiracy to succeed remains to be seen.

But there is another dimension of Raiwind’s mindset that needs to be discussed. It is too well known for its art of winning over personalities that it considers useful for its political and business interests. Showering them with expensive gifts and favors helps to buy their loyalties for crucial times. This may have worked wonders in most of the cases, like the secret flying visit to Quetta by a Raiwind loyalist, a retired judge, with reportedly cash filled briefcase at the height of Nawaz Sharif’s confrontation with then Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Sajjad Ali Shah in late nineties.

But this typical businessmen like ‘every Pakistani has a price’ approach apparently did not work to their expectations in case of top Army officers. As confirmed by veterans, the attempt to present new cars to some Generals during days of late COAS Gen Asif Nawaz badly backfired. A former DG Rangers Sindh during Nawaz Sharif’s second tenure (1997 – 1999) shared with me the other day how he was offered an expensive watch, which he politely refused to accept.

While this report was never confirmed by mainstream print and electronic media, it did make rounds of social media including tweet by senior leading journalist about how a gift of very expensive shawls were returned from the gates of Army House in Rawalpindi some time back. If this was really true then civilian Sharifs must have got a loud and clear message from the khaki Sharif.

Has Nawaz Sharif’s “gifts” diplomacy with our eastern neighbor worked? One wonders if the rulers deliberately ignore public sentiments and compromise national pride to pursue their own interests. Pakistanis were shocked to hear that their Prime Minister sent crates of mangos to Indian PM Modi and other top leaders across the border around recent Eid days at a time when Indian Army was targeting and killing our civilians on Kashmir’s LOC/Working Boundary.

Nawaz Sharif may be sadly mistaken if he believes he can tame the diehard anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan Modi with his sweet Pakistani mangos. The sweeter our mangos, the more vicious and severe was the Indian Army’s aggression on LOC/Sialkot Working Boundary. India’s Modi-military-media nexus will only interpret such gifts as a sign of our national weakness. At least our Rangers respected public sensitivities and displayed patriotism by refusing to accept traditional Eid sweets from the Indian BSF at Wagha border check post.
While recording a 14th August Independence day program with a leading TV channel at Wagha border the other day, I was reminded about a video on social media that showed clip of historic speech of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in which the Founder of Pakistan emphatically declared that by all standards of religion, culture and way of life, the Hindus and Muslims were two different nations.

The same video then shows a shocking speech by Nawaz Sharif at a function in a Lahore hotel, where he talks about the same culture and food, common heritage and back ground with a border just coming in between and separating the two peoples.

Perhaps Nawaz Sharif should attend the Rangers flag lowering ceremony at Wagha check post to have a live experience of spirit of Pakistani nation. He will find that Wagha border is not just an erasable line that separates people of India and Pakistan as he may be thinking. It is an everlasting symbol of our 1947 Freedom Movement, Pakistan’s ideology and Two Nation Theory.