”I want to implement complete Islamic laws where the Koran and the Sunnat are supreme.”
This is a direct quote from Nawaz Sharif's speech in the parliament when he was Pakistan's Prime Minister. Before he triggered a crisis that brought Musharraf into power, Nawaz Sharif was on his way to trashing everything non-religious in Pakistan. Not only had he come dangerously close to permanently destroying Pakistan's secular constitution, Nawaz Sharif's reckless governing style had put Pakistan on the path to complete economic meltdown, but fortunately for Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif was removed just in time to stop the slide.
Interestingly, today Nawaz Sharif is championing freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and above all, believe it or not, independent judiciary, but it was during a time when Nawaz Sharif was the Prime Minster of Pakistan (and at a time when a case against him was being heard in the Supreme Court) that a group of thugs, gathered and transported from Lahore to Islamabad by Nawaz Sharif's younger brother attacked the Supreme Court in Islamabad to stop the hearing against Nawaz Sharif. I know it is hard to imagine, let alone accept this if you are listening to Nawaz Sharif these days, but this is a historic fact that even Nawaz Sharif can't deny.
For those of you who don't remember how freedom was curtailed during Nawaz Sharif's government and it is possible that you might not remember his authoritarian style, given Nawaz Sharif's aggressive support for the media once he lost power, let me help you. This is an appeal by Amnesty International to secure Najam Sethi's release from prison. Najam, a top intellectual and a leading journalist in Pakistan insisted on reporting honestly and freely, instead of ignoring the terrible corruption and moral decay of the government under Nawaz Sharif's premiership. Once more, if you are listening to today's Nawaz Sharif huff and puff about media rights, you would think that he would have lauded Najam Sethi. But sadly, once again, it is the exact opposite that happened. Najam Sethi was brutally beaten and arrested at 2:30 in the morning from his bedroom in Lahore, Nawaz Sharif's hometown and his constituency. Why was Najam arrested? Because Najam Sethi was doing his job – he was reporting honestly and independently.
To this day, Nawaz Sharif has not apologized to Najam or his family either.
It gets even more interesting. Nawaz Sharif's first stint as Pakistan's Prime Minster was so horribly bad that the United States had threatened to declare Pakistan a terrorist state. Had Washington not threatened Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif would have been happy with the dirty work done by the then Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lieutenant General Javed Nasir. If you read Mr. Nasir's own Wikipedia page, you would notice the rants against the Jews and the Christians and of course, the blame for his removal somehow is linked to other non-believers, but there is not single word about his own conduct.
As a politician, Nawaz Sharif was a complete failure as well. He was obsessed with surrounding himself with shallow people. Otherwise, how can anyone explain the appointment of Raifq Tarar as the president of Pakistan? In reality, Nawaz Sharif could have, and actually, he should have promoted to the presidency someone progressive, intelligent, and independent. But Nawaz Sharif operates differently. He wants power, more power, all the power. For example, Nawaz Sharif's party won 170 seats in Punjab Assembly in recent elections, but, shockingly, there is no one, but one man who is qualified to be the Chief Minister, his own brother! Yes, he appointed his brother the Chief Minister, just like he had done in the past.
Change begins at home and if Nawaz Sharif is a changed man, his policies and politics don't support his claim.
Therefore, now that Washington has an opportunity to have good relationship with the people of Pakistan by supporting the current government, Washington should not fall for Nawaz Sharif's Western attire, but the policy makers in Washington should remember Nawaz Sharif's past. Today's Pakistan is essentially run by Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari. As we already know, Nawaz Sharif's history is full of vindictive politics, nasty personal attacks, unnecessary legal and constitutional entanglements with other branches of government, and a sense of entitlement. So, the only other viable option is Asif Zardari, who is the widower of Benazir Bhutto. Zardari is not perfect, and he does have his share of human flaws and his baggage. Yet, when his past is compared to Nawaz Sharif's history, it becomes obvious that Washington has to go with Zardari.
If I were a policymaker in Washington, I would support Zardari's effort to move the country forward.
Bilal Qureshi
Washington, DC
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