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Cover Story The Unsafe Bet The curtain may drop on the Chaudhrys
of Gujrat as General Pervez Musharraf moves to secure his own
position after the 2007 general elections.
By Adnan Adil
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Last year, Mir Zafrullah Khan Jamali was shown the door as a result of an in-house change in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League. Now it seems to be the turn of party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who is struggling to recover from failing health after a stroke. At the same time, he must combat the efforts of party men such as federal minister Humayun Akhtar Khan and former prime minister Mir Zafrullah Khan Jamali to oust him and instal a new leader of the official Muslim League. President Pervez Musharraf presided over a meeting of the ruling party's leaders on May 16. Manzoor Watto, Ijazul Haq, Hamid Nasir Chattha, Farooq Leghari, Mir Zafrullah Jamali, Humayun Akhtar and other luminaries of the party participated in the meeting at the President's House. With General Musharraf's prodding, these leaders had merged their parties in the ruling Muslim League after the general elections. However, they met in Lahore on April 18 to express their lack of confidence in Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain's leadership. At this meeting, President Musharraf, who is considered the defacto supremo of the ruling party cobbled together by intelligence agencies and his confidante Tariq Aziz, apparently threw his weight behind Chaudhry Shujaat. He tried to curb the anxiety of the PML leaders by saying that PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto and PML-N head Nawaz Sharif would not be allowed to participate in the next general elections. Commenting on the situation, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi said his cousin Shujaat Hussain had foiled the efforts of those who wanted to grab power through the back door. Mushahid Hussain Syed, the party's central information secretary and Chaudhry Shujaat's right-hand man, said the movement against Chaudhry Shujaat was merely a storm in a tea cup. However, insiders claim that differences within the party did not end there. Soon after this meeting, Mir Zafrullah Jamali called on General Musharraf for an exclusive meeting. This was his second one-on-one with the President in a short period of two months, amid rumours that he is actively working for a change in the party leadership. Subsequently, Jamali also called on the veteran Sindhi politician, Pir Pagaro, who has openly demanded the removal of Chaudhry Shujaat from his position. Soon after the meeting, Pir Pagaro applied to the Election Commission to disallow all factions, (including the ruling party) except the faction he heads, the PML (Functional), from using the name of Pakistan Muslim League. He claims that a Supreme Court judgement had recognised his faction as the true Muslim League. His emissaries also met with the former president of the ruling party in Lahore, Mian Mohammed Azhar, and elicited his support for Pagaro's efforts for a reunion of what he calls the real and ideological Muslim Leaguers. Mian Azhar, who was instrumental in wrecking the ship of the Sharif family but lost his own seat in the last general elections, has been waiting in the wings for the last two years to settle scores with the Chaudhrys of Gujrat who had dislodged him as the president of the party. Mian Azhar has now publicly announced his support for Pir Pagaro, saying the party should be rid of 'plunderers,' alluding to the Chaudhrys of Gujrat. Pir Pagaro has plans to convene a meeting of the Muslim League leaders shortly, from a cross-section of various factions, including those now sitting in the official Muslim League who had voiced their reservations about the leadership of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. Pagaro has announced that he would bring together all factions of the Muslim League and the same intention has been voiced by Mir Zafrullah Jamali in Medina, where he is currently on an Umra pilgrimage. Jamali has denied speculation that he will hold talks with the premier-in-exile, Nawaz Sharif, on the reunion of Muslim League factions, but keeping in view the tendency of politicians to veil their wheeling and dealing, his statement has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Jamali's endeavours to dislodge Chaudhry Shujaat in collusion with Humayun Akhtar, a perennial candidate for prime ministership in the ruling party, had become so apparent within the Muslim League that an offended Chaudhry Shujaat publicly stated that Jamali had nothing to do with the party, and that he had left the party when he had resigned as prime minister last year. The open confrontation between Shujaat and Jamali swung in the latter's favour. Chaudhry Shujaat called on Jamali twice to mollify him and withdrew his statement. This also reflected Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain's weakening position within the ruling party. The Chaudhrys were made to eat humble pie, not only in relation to Jamali, but were also forced to offer a public apology to federal minister for defence, Rao Sikandar, for spoiling the show arranged in his hometown, Okara, for Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. The lack of trust shown by party stalwarts such as Leghari, Wattoo and Chattha and the discomfort of coalition partners like People's Party defectors Rao Sikandar Iqbal and PML Functional's Pir Pagaro give the impression that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is not acceptable to all in the ruling camp and lacks the capability to keep the party and the alliance united. Only the establishment and President Musharraf seem to have managed to keep these divergent forces together. The prospects of this fragile alliance to get its men elected in the local government elections planned for July-August this year seem dim. Local governments have been traditionally used by military rulers as a base to bring their supporters and allies into the national political mainstream. This time, local government elections are likely to be fought more fiercely than in 2000-2001, as all political parties including the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), who had boycotted the previous elections, will be in the race. PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto has said that the fairness with which these elections are held will be a litmus test for General Musharraf's intentions. Her party seems to have given up the demand for earlier general elections and settled for fair local government elections as a first step towards reconciliation with the Musharraf regime. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain's opponents within the party have convinced Musharraf that the prospects of the ruling Muslim League are dim in the local government elections, and the party needs a new leader to revitalise it and keep the flock together. Humayun Akhtar Khan has tons of money which he believes he can dole out to become prime minister. Jamali is selling the idea of a leader acceptable to all as a party president in place of the controversial and ambitious Chaudhrys. Although President Musharraf has refrained from being seen as backing Shujaat's detractors, it is believed that no one in the ruling party acts against the party leadership without a nod from the President and his close aides, such as the secretary general of the National Security Council, Tariq Aziz. Sources say Aziz had supported Humayun Akhtar for the office of prime minister last time, but the Chaudhrys shot down the idea, as they are not prepared to share the limelight with a political leader from the Punjab. In an effort to keep the Punjab under their control, the Chaudhrys did not allow Shahbaz Sharif, who has been engaged in talks with the establishment, to land in Lahore last year. Neither did they allow Asif Zardari to show his political strength when he came to Lahore from Dubai, accompanied by much fanfare. It is believed that President Musharraf wants to harness an alliance of the present ruling alliance (PML-Q, PPP Patriots etc), the PPP minus Benazir and the PML-N, minus Nawaz Sharif, to achieve a wider political support base that could elect him president after the 2007 general elections, when his current tenure ends. Federal information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, who is widely known as Musharraf's mouthpiece, confirmed this speculation in Lahore on May 17. The Chaudhrys seem to have been the main hindrance in the way of Musharraf's future plans as they do not want to lose their grip on the Punjab, which they worked hard to grab from Nawaz Sharif after his fall from power in 1999. The
game appears to have come full circle now as Humayun Akhtar Khan,
through his connections with the establishment, is trying to do
to the Chaudhrys what they did to Nawaz Sharif, as he hobnobs with
the powers-that-be for a change in the PML(Q) leadership. |
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