TuQ and Model Town: How internal politics did PML-N in
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It's a true saying that politicians do not need enemies; they just need time as they are their own worst enemies.
The statement holds true for practically all political parties in Pakistan. It took the PPP five years at the top to wipe out its presence from three provinces.
It took Imran Khan just being himself to begin slowly killing PTI support from Sindh and Punjab.
Finally, it took the Punjab government just their own actions and habits to make a crisis out of what should have been a non-issue the other day in Model Town, Lahore.
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What happened is more than just another screw-up. It is a case study of how fundamentally incapable our parties are of managing political threats in this age and therefore, why it’s reasonable to expect them to keep bungling up such matters in the future.
The forces at work
First off, anyone who thinks the police act on their own, without orders from above, is hugely mistaken.
Any police department in this country only responds to political higher ups, specifically the home department in the provincial government. Most MNAs or MPAs cannot even get to make transfers inside police departments without seeking huge favours from the Home Minister.
The real cause behind the Model Town incident is the sickness of the ‘political video game’. Politics is like a video game where one must score points, cross certain levels to move on to the next one. And in this game, a large number of pawns involved in Punjab’s politics consider it a great point-scoring move to become the apple of the Chief Minister’s eye.
Yes, those are the elements responsible for this incident.
None of these people happens to be a democratically elected official. But then, anyone who knows the Punjab government will know that it is the bureaucrats who always make things happen.
In dealing with TuQ, the race among unelected officials to be the blue-eyed boy cost 10 innocent lives and gave the moral high ground to a person like TuQ. But the cherry on top of this cake of crap is that none of the individuals who triggered this avalanche of stupidity would incur the backlash of it in the long run.
The backlash will be for the party to endure.
That may sound unfair, but it’s not, considering how the government dealt with the blowback of this tragedy. Initially, flat out refusing to take responsibility, the government then slowly grew a spine and admitted they were wrong. And just when it seemed that they were going to go ahead and do the right thing; politics kicked in.
The politicised aftermath
First came the attempt at Judicial Commission which was rightly shot down. Why, you may ask, is that bad idea? Well, because in government terminology, ‘Judicial Commission’ or ‘Investigation Committee’ translates to ‘Nothing will ever come out of this but this should shut you all up’.
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And after this lame attempt at defusing the situation came my favorite episode: the sacking of Rana Sanaullah and Dr. Tauqir. I find this highly amusing because Sanaullah as Law Minister has no control over police or security agencies in the province. Both groups fall under the Home Ministry, which is operated through the Home Secretary. So technically, the Home Secretary should be facing the sack for this.
But since Rana Sanaullah happens to be the patsy in PML-N’s internal politics, he has been ousted. You may ask, what internal politics specifically? Well, wait a week and see who gets appointed to replace him; that fight has been going for years now and with the Model Town calamity, Rana Sana’s luck finally ran out.
Dr. Tauqir on the other hand is the right move but the damage he has already inflicted on the government cannot be washed away. Plus, what most people will overlook is that Dr. Tauqir will be sacked as Principal Secretary but will be made secretary something else so that for all practical purposes, he stays in the room and continues to shower the party with his pearls of wisdom. In fact, his stock just went up because in front of the Chief Minister, he has sacrificed his position and taken ‘one for the team’.
None of this will bring back the people who lost their lives nor will any of them receive justice. Just like the 10,000 plus people who lost their lives in Karachi in the last 5 years or the thousands of Hazaras massacred across the country.
The sensible thing to do
We need to ask some tough questions of this ‘democracy’ of ours. Democracy is for the people, by the people. It should remain that way. Unelected officials rat-racing for a month’s glory in the Chief Minister’s circle is not democratic.
Also read: 'The Qadri engima'
As I write this post, Tahirul Qadri has returned to Pakistan and the government is gearing up to spoil his container-politics-party. No matter what happens, it should be an eventful few days and the Punjab government will do good to apply the lessons gleaned from the last couple of days.
My advice to the government is, understand that TuQ wants attention, a seat on the table and a piece of the pie without actually taking the democratic route. Let him do his thing, let him make a show of his power and let him embarrass himself one more time. Such characters realize they will never get anything through democracy, so they keep trying other methods.
But unlike the last time when PPP gave him a face saving way out, this time around let his joke play out.
Why do I say this?
Well, because the Babus of Punjab gave TuQ the moral high ground and the only way to change that is to leave him alone for some time. Because remember, all said and done, TuQ is a politician and like all politicians, he is his own worst enemy given the right amount of time.
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The writer is currently doing his PhD in Political Science at Georgia State University. He tweets @adnanrasool
