Plague  on Both Your Houses!

JUST what in the name of Allah  are our politicians up to? How dare they desecrate Independence Day  in the manner they did at Walton and later at Mochi Gate ? Was August 14 a day for partisan politics? Is this done anywhere else in the world? The tone and tenor at both places was a body blow to national unity.

          I heard the Prime Minister  speak in Islamabad  and when he ended by extending Independence Day  greetings to his "Brothers and sisters in the Opposition" and when he prayed, "May mutual hatred change into love," one thought that he had given the day an auspicious start.   

          But here in Lahore , Mr. Nawaz Sharif , speaking at the Bab-i-Pakistan  ceremony at Walton, was a different person altogether. The occasion demanded that he speak as the Prime Minister  and not as the leader of the IJI  and the Muslim  League.

          His target, of course, was the PPP . There is not an invective in the dictionary, and out of it, that he did not use against the People's Party. He asked, "Where are their resignations (a reference to the APC  declaration in Lahore  on August 12 that if the Government was not sacked immediately, Opposition legislators would resign). For God 's sake, resign!"

          "Had there been no PPP , Pakistan  would not have been cut in two. My blood boils when I think of the PPP, and I want to tear it into bits."

          To use such language on such an occasion! He was there to lay the foundation stone of a memorial to honour those who had laid down their lives in the vicious communal riots before and in the aftermath of partition.

          Jam Sadiq Ali  said: "Why are you worried, Prime Minister ? I assure you that not many legislators will resign at the APC 's call. And those who do so will only be vacating their seats for the IJI . With the blessings of Data Sahib, I will obliterate our political enemies [who else but the PPP ?] from Sindh ."

          Sheikh  Rashid , who is making more enemies for the Prime Minister  than anyone in the Opposition, said a surprisingly sensible thing: "It is August 14. Let us speak the truth at least today." But generally, the Sheikh from Rawalpindi  looks better when he is silent.

          The crowd at the Walton function, though big, was not terribly responsive. Most of the people there, if to themselves, would have preferred to stay indoors on a hot and sultry evening.

          At Mochi Gate , on the contrary, the crowd was infinitely more responsive but the speeches were even more viciously partisan than those made at Walton were.

          All those who spoke on the occasion, tried to outdo each other in the use of foul, aggressive language. Mrs. Bhutto , of course, stole the show. There is, unfortunately, magic in the name she carries. The more is the pity. She spoke in the tradition of both hero and the villain in the Punjab  cinema. And the crowd responded to her even as it had responded to her father in the post-Tashkent  days. Unfortunately.

          Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan  was voted President  in 1988 because he was the PPP -IJI  nominee against Nawabzada  Nasrullah Khan  who was on Wednesday sitting by her side. Principled politics, you know, old chap. On the night of August 14, she addressed him as Oay, Saahqya!

          Then, turning to Mr. Jahangir Badr, she asked, "What is Punjabi  for Damad [son-in-law]? When Mr. Jahangir Badr obliged, she sang:

Gali gali main shor heh
Susr-damad chor heyn

The lines don't quite rhyme, but no one, least of Mrs. Bhutto , should have talked of the President , even when he happens to be Mr. Ghulam Ishaq Khan . And not on Independence Day , anyhow.

          Then she said: "He [Mr. Nawaz Sharif ] had promised that he would conquer Kashmir . We should have realised that when he made this pledge, he was thinking in terms of liberating Azad  Kashmir." She shares (or is made by her advisers to share) this penchant for the bon mot; but like her father, she fails to appreciate the distinction between histrionics and history. History is serious business, Missy Loag.

          Barrister Sultan Mahmood from Azad  Kashmir  said: "This meeting here tonight is the Namaz-i-Janaza of Ghulam Ishaq Khan  and Nawaz Sharif ." For crying out loud!

          Agha Murtaza Pooya (who bears a remarkable resemblance with Beelzebub) said: "This mammoth gathering here tonight proves that Nawaz Sharif  is gone. He is a traitor to Islam  and democracy." Both Islam and democracy, needless to say, are very dear to Mr. Pooya's duplicitous heart.

          You will read extensive accounts of who said what at Walton and Mochi Gate  (on Independence Day , mind you). Take out all the sound and fury and you will get what Shakespeare  got. Tales told by idiots-full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. If these be politicians and if this be politics, God  help Pakistan . If this be politics to say to those in power and those aspiring for it: Plague  on both your houses!

Friday, August 16, 1991