Opinion In a political avatar

The Chaudhrys — Shujaat Hussain,the head of the pro-Musharraf Muslim League-Q,then in power,and his cousin Pervaiz Elahi,former chief minister of Punjab — have for now distanced themselves from the general. They began to see him as a political liability during his last two years in power in which he started shooting himself in the foot. The Chaudhrys believed they had provided Musharraf the political platform from which he was able to rule for nine long years,but Musharraf knew otherwise — they only reflected the power the military had ceded to them under rigged elections,with little public support on the ground.

The killing of the veteran Baloch sardar,Nawab Akbar Bugti,in 2006 and the Lal Masjid operation in Islamabad in July 2007,in which over 100 militant Islamists were killed,particularly embarrassed the Chaudhrys,who had come to regard themselves as national leaders and,hence,spokesmen for all everywhere. This found them forced to embrace strange bedfellows for their political survival beyond Musharraf,as Baloch nationalists and the mullah brigade became the general’s whipping boys.

The Chaudhrys’ rivals within Musharraf’s camp were the standalone former prime minister,Shaukat Aziz,in the “grand original party” and Altaf Hussain of the MQM. Both wholeheartedly supported the general in his unpopular endeavours,from the military operation in Balochistan to Lal Masjid,to the sacking of the Supreme Court judges in 2007,the imposition of emergency on November 3 the same year,followed by the issuance of the National Reconciliation Ordinance,reaching out to Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party. But Musharraf’s relenting to Saudi pressure to let Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif back into Pakistan just in time for the 2008 elections was the last nail in the coffin of the Chaudhrys’ camaraderie with the general. In 2008,they could not even win their own two hometown seats.

However,the PML-Q,even divided between the Chaudhrys’ loyalists and their nemeses,was able to retain a good number of seats in Punjab,Balochistan and at the Centre,mainly because Baloch nationalists and Islamists had boycotted the polls,not necessarily thanks to genuine public support. It is this section of the PML-Q that Musharraf will try to woo for his new outfit,besides reaching out to his erstwhile friends,the MQM and the Muslim League (Functional) headed by the aged Pir Pagara,the supposedly divine head of the Hur peasant community in Sindh,famous for backing the winning horse. But the MQM and Pir Pagara have consistently supported direct or indirect military rule,and will wait to see if Musharraf has the army’s backing for his unfolding political adventure.

Meanwhile,the Chaudhrys have panicked and reached out to Pir Pagara to thwart Musharraf’s design to grab the Muslim League leadership. They have swallowed the bitter pill of offering Pir Pagara the leadership of a combined ML as a counterweight to both Musharraf’s party and the powerful PML-N headed by Nawaz Sharif.

Musharraf is unlikely to be back in Pakistan any time soon,while the PPP,PML-N and the ferociously independent judiciary that he threw out hold their ground. But this being Pakistan,there’s no forecasting the ramifications that the flood and its aftermath,terrorism,the alleged corruption of ruling politicians and an all but collapsed economy may have in the months ahead.

Razvi,an editor with ‘Dawn’,Karachi,is the author of ‘Musharraf: The Years in Power’