Ayaz Amir

Even as President Musharraf sings the unity anthem, saying all is well in the ranks of his motley supporters, simmering differences in the officially-sponsored Q League burst into the open, the president of the League, Shujaat Hussain, suddenly training his guns on former prime minister Jamali, Jamali protesting hurt innocence, a cabal of out-of-power Leaguers sharpening their knives against Shujaat, permanent prime ministerial hopeful Humayun Akhtar jumping into the fray and taking further potshots at Shujaat, and no one in Islamabad, a city since its founding dedicated to intrigue and upheaval, with the faintest clue as to what’s happening.

Amidst all this excitement and drama—shoot the person who says life is dull in the Islamic Republic—Pakistan’s gift to global banking, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is away on one of his never-ending foreign visits, delivering speeches and giving press/TV interviews without purpose or rationale. Trouble on the Q front means more headaches for Gen Musharraf. What is Shaukat’s role in reducing his boss’s political burden? Zero.

Shaukat is Musharraf’s third prime minister. If the first, Jamali, was an invitation to sleep, and the second, Shujaat, a 45-days’ wonder, the third, Shaukat, is already giving rise to grave second thoughts along the corridors of the presidency. No kidding, the damning verdict being whispered about him: slippery and too smooth, and politically a cipher.

Pakistan may lack other commodities but not prime ministerial hopefuls. Even Zardari, I am told, wants to be prime minister, which only goes to prove my point Pakistan’s American godfathers, convinced Musharraf is the best thing ever to have happened to Pakistan, are

not amused. Ecstatic about the president’s external achievements, they despair about his internal position. Wishing to strengthen it, they are urging Benazir Bhutto to make her peace with Musharraf.

Benazir is no fool, neither Asif for that matter. But to keep things in perspective, on offer to the PPP is junior partnership, that too in return for good behaviour and a clear understanding of who is boss.

But Benazir and Asif are in a bind. They want another shot at power and, while cases in Pakistani courts can be dealt with more easily, they are understandably keen to be rid of the money-laundering and corruption cases pending against them before the Swiss judiciary. A conviction there would be hard to brush off as political victimisation.

So for these reasons they are playing ball with Musharraf.

For all practical purposes the PML-N is out of the reconciliation loop, largely because Nawaz Sharif wants to be no part of any deal with Musharraf. Chemistry rather than politics is at work here because both Musharraf and Nawaz share a mutual loathing for each other.

The flaming beards of the MMA, the alliance of religious parties, all things to all men, loud in rhetoric, cautious in action, are probably the clearest beneficiaries of the mess the Pakistani domestic political scene is in.

Ayaz, a columnist for Dawn, writes for THT from Islamabad