The dissident PML(N) leader Muhammad Zubair in a TV talk show a few days ago made a startling revelation that General Bajwa had met PML(N) supremo Nawaz Sharif in London before no-confidence against Imran Khan. According to him, the two met twice before the no-confidence motion, and General Bajwa was promised an extension in his tenure. He also said that Maryam had asked him to make sure that not even members of the Sharif family knew about this meeting.

Coming from the mouth of a man who till recently had been the spokesperson for Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz and was a vociferous voice in defending the party and its leaders, created quite a stir. The statement tended to corroborate the narrative of PTI about a conspiracy to topple Imran Khan in which General Bajwa had a pivotal role. The PTI reacting to this revelation immediately demanded putting General Bajwa in the dock for having conspired with convicted Nawaz Sharif against an elected government and also urged for the formation of a judicial commission to probe the matter thoroughly. The party did not bother to ascertain the authenticity of Zubair’s claim and took his statement at face value.

The issue remained a hotly discussed subject in the media as well as in the political circles. The PML (N) outrightly rejected the statement by Muhammad Zubair challenging its authenticity. Senator Irfan Siddiqui categorically said that there had been no meeting or telephonic contact between Nawaz Sharif and General Bajwa since July 28, 2017, when Nawaz Sharif was removed from power by the Supreme Court except a brief one-minute condolence talk on the telephone on the death of Kulsum Nawaz.

The version given by PML(N) and the details about General Bajwa’s visit to the UK also expose the falsehood of Zubair’s statement. General Bajwa visited the UK from April 2 to April 7 in 2017; from October 10-14 in 2018 and from June 15-20 in 2019 while according to Zubair the meeting between the two took place in April 2022. The record also shows that the next visit of General Bajwa to the UK took place four months after the removal of Imran Khan’s government.

Muhammad Zubair has now retracted from his statement. Talking to The News he confessed that he had no authentic information about an alleged early 2022 meeting between Nawaz Sharif and General Bajwa and that his comments on a TV talk show were speculative and not based on facts he could state under oath. According to him, he was responding to a speculative question by sharing the rumours circulating at that time. However, he insisted that Imran’s government was removed with the support of the establishment.

I think Zubair made false statements on both occasions. In the first statement, he tried to add authenticity to his information about the meeting by saying that Maraym had asked him to keep it secret which meant that the meeting had actually taken place. In the second statement, he says it was only a speculative talk. It actually reinforces his credentials as a liar.

The casual manner in which he has taken a U-turn is typical of the way Imran used to do it. It reminds me of the fuss that Imran created over thirty-five punctures allegedly executed by caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab Najam Sethi in favour of PML (N) on which he based his campaign against the government and demanded a probe by the Judicial Commission in the alleged rigging in 2013 election. However, when the judicial commission nullified the allegations of rigging Imran Khan in a TV interview admitted that thirty-five punctures were only political talk as somebody had told him about it.

It is hard to say what was Zubair’s motivation in the first place to come up with the statement that he made regarding a meeting between General Bajwa and Nawaz Sharif and then retracting it. However, his conduct proves that he is not different from other opportunists and political free-loaders out to make fortunes at the expense of the people and the state. They keep changing their loyalties whenever it suits them to pursue their nefarious designs. Now that Zubair has retracted his statement, the PTI should have expressed remorse over its impulsive reaction to his statement. It has not and will not do so.

One is also amazed at the audacity of PTI leaders to demand a probe into the issue by a judicial commission. If a judicial commission is necessary to probe into conspiracies against the sitting governments then why do PTI leaders conveniently forget that their own leader conspired to topple the PML(N) government that led to a 126-day sit-in at Islamabad? While Zubair has backed off from his claim one of the participants of the London Plan Mubashar Luqman---a renowned journalist--- has confirmed that a conspiracy was hatched in a meeting in London to remove Nawaz Sharif from power. According to him, General Zahir ul Islam, Imran Khan, Chaudhray brothers, Tahir ul Qadri and he himself participated in the deliberations of the meeting. This is absolutely disgusting politics.

It amply proves the hypocrisy of our politicians and political parties. The dilemma is that politics in our country is the exclusive domain of the elite classes which have common vested interests to protect and reinforce. In this game of power politics ethics and principles have no place and the people are only there to bring these crooks into power to build their fortunes. National and state interests are subservient to their narrow political agendas. These elite classes also represent different mafias controlling politics and the economy. It is due to the machinations of these elite classes that the country now is actually at a crossroads.

If Pakistan has to move forward and follow the path envisioned by its founding father then we will have to get rid of the archaic system of governance and the way we elect our representatives. Our salvation probably lies in the switch-over to a system of proportional representation. Who will actually bring about this change remains a million-dollar question because there will be stiff resistance from these elite classes to any change that undermines their position and privileges.

Malik Muhammad Ashraf
The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at ashpak10@gmail.com