Justice Markandey Katju-
(Justice Markandey Katju is a former Judge, Supreme Court of India, and former Chairman, Press Council of India. The views expressed are his own)
On October 21, former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, having returned to Pakistan after 4 years of stay abroad in England ( following his conviction in 2018 on corruption charges and 10-year jail sentence by a Pakistani court ), delivered a speech at a huge public rally at Minar-e-Sharif, Lahore.
Before discussing the contents of this speech it is necessary to mention a few facts.
Pakistan has been ruled, overtly or covertly, by its army ever since Gen Ayub Khan staged a coup in 1958, and even today the situation is the same. Prime Ministers who clashed with the army have been soon dislodged.
The crucial decisions of the army are taken in the Corps Commanders Conferences, which are frequently held, and in which those present are the army chief ( who is of the rank of general ), and the corps commanders and principal staff officers ( who are of the rank of lieutenant general ). These are the real rulers of Pakistan.
However, the generals usually want power without responsibility, so they prefer the fig leaf of a civilian government, so long as that does not interfere with the internal affairs of the military, and also its massive corruption ( highlighted in the article below).
https://indicanews.com/the-pakistani-vampire/
It was the attempt of Nawaz Sharif, who was then Prime Minister of Pakistan, to enforce civilian control over the army, and his dismissal of the then army chief, Gen. Musharraf, that led to a military coup by the latter in 1999. Nawaz Sharif had earlier sacked the then army chief Gen Jahangir Karamat in 1998 even before his term was over, something which must have caused considerable heart-burning in army circles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawaz_Sharif
However, things have changed considerably in Pakistan since then. Imran Khan, who became Prime Minister in 2018, later fell out with the then army chief Gen Bajwa, and was removed by a vote of no confidence in Parliament in 2022, probably with behind the scene army backing, and Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother Shehbaz Sharif became PM. Presently there is a caretaker government but national elections are due.
Imran Khan has overwhelming support from the public in Pakistan ( over 90%, as all opinion polls indicate ) but the army is adamant that he must not be allowed to come back to power. So one can safely conjecture that in a Corps Commanders conference the generals decided to reinstall Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister, and made a deal with him, as mentioned in the article below.
https://indicanews.com/justice-katju-nawaz-sharifs-return-will-set-the-pakistani-prairie-on-fire/
Nawaz Sharif was seen off at the London airport by the Pakistan High Commissioner to United Kingdom, although he held no official position, and on his arrival at Islamabad airport, he was received by high officials, with full publicity by the media, as if he was already the Prime Minister. The servile judiciary quickly granted him bail, and then he flew to Lahore, where he was again received at the airport by high state officials with all government protocol. Then he flew by helicopter to the Minar-e-Pakistan grounds, where the authorities, using the state machinery, had spared no efforts to ensure the gathering of a huge crowd, and making the venue look like a lighted Diwali.
The event reminded one of Hitler’s Nuremburg rallies, with the loudspeakers chanting ‘Mulk ko bacha lo Nawaz Sharif’, reminiscent of the Nazi slogans ‘Heil Hitler’ and ‘Sieg heil’. Nawaz Sharif was portrayed by the state-controlled PTV channel like a Caesar returning from his triumphs, saying ‘veni, vidi, vici’.
In his long speech, Nawaz Sharif addressed several issues.
He spoke of his ordeals, the wrongs done to him, how he lost his mother and wife, and his achievements like making the atom bomb, motorways, curtailing load shedding, etc, and said he has come for a revival of the country ( though he presented no details how he would abolish or reduce the massive poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, etc in Pakistan).
He said he would work with the institutions, which really meant he would not finger the army again–once bitten twice shy.
He also said several times that he had no desire for inteqaam ( revenge ). But he did not specify inteqaam against whom. If he meant the army, he has learned his lesson well and has no desire, like King Charles the Second of England, to go on foreign travels again. If he meant Imran Khan, he did not demand his release from incarceration in Adiala jail and the withdrawal of the 180 fabricated criminal cases against him.
What was important in his speech was not what he said, e.g. the generalities, platitudes, and homilies he uttered ( like saying that he loved the people, and the people loved him) but what he did not say.
He did not say anything about holding early elections as mandated by Article 224(2) of the Constitution ( since the 5-year term of Parliament has expired ) and restoration of democracy. He did not condemn the violation of human rights, and demand the release of the 10,000 people arrested on trumped-up charges after the events of May 9, and languishing in jail for several months in horrible conditions.
He made no mention of the period when his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif was Prime Minister, when the economy plunged downhill, prices of essential commodities like food, fuel and electricity skyrocketed, and he and his Ministers went around the world with a begging bowl in their hands.
He did not express any desire for a truly independent judiciary, or a free media.
He did not explain how his, and his daughter Maryam’s name figured in the Panama Papers.
And finally, he presented no road map for how he would restore the health of Pakistan’s economy (apart from uttering some shibboleths and cliches).
Altogether it was a lacklustre performance, and reminds one of the line in Shakespeare’s Macbeth ” It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing ”.
