PPP Responds: Zardari is Testing Musharraf at His Own Game
By Nazir Dhoki

ISLAMABAD, April 26: Mr. Asif Ali Zardari returned to Pakistan against the background of a policy of national reconciliation announced by General Musharraf. There were many in the PPP and amongst the public who viewed with cynicism the declaration of the policy of reconciliation.

They pointed out that under the guise of reconciliation, PPP mayors were dismissed, PPP constituencies gerrymandered, PPP Parliamentarians pressured to change sides and PPP leaders, including former Speaker Yousaf Raza Gillani, imprisoned.

In such circumstances, Mr. Zardari, who spent eight years in prison, came back to Pakistan. His return proved two things. First that the PPP organizational capacity to motivate its workers was alive and vibrant. Second, the regime had no intention of reconciliation.

The Zardari return resulted in bad Press for General Musharraf and his so called claims of restoring democracy to Pakistan. Police wielding batons charged into crowds. Women had their hair pulled, heads and arms twisted by vicious brutes who need to be cleansed from the police force. Cells meant for four prisoners were crowded with more than 100 persons.

Sanitation water was leaked into cells to make a nauseating stink. Parliamentarians were kidnapped from the police cells and threatened that they would be dumped at the Indian border and allowed to be killed by the Indian police.

An 80-year old man was arrested because he was the cousin of a parliamentarian. An 11-month infant was arrested. This brutality did not take place under the colonialists that had conquered India. It took place in the 21st century under a ruler who claims he is following the path of moderate enlightenment or vice versa.
The police action against the PPP workers was in stark contrast to the regime's tender handling of the MMA leadership. The MMA has been allowed to transport its workers to public meetings. It has been allowed to hold marches and rallies. It is clear that while the PML-Q is the King's Party, the MMA is the King's Opposition.
And why not. It makes sense for the MMA, elected for the first time to provincial governments, to hold on to power by any means. The MMA is vulnerable on the issue of university degrees too. Their high school diplomas, which is what Madrassas degrees are, were made equivalent to university degrees. One Supreme Court verdict can change their fortunes.

They have to toe the line, and they do. Hence the 17th amendment. Hence the protests on the religion column in the passports. The MMA is there to come to the rescue of the King's Party.

The intolerant, immoderate and inhuman treatment meted out to the people of Pakistan whose crime was to go to the airport peacefully has caused anger and discontentment in the nation. The international community is full of praise for a dictator who is their ally. But in trusting one man, they risk losing a nation.
The PPP workers were bailed out. However, as soon as they were bailed out, they were re-arrested as terrorists. Subsequently they were sent to different prisons in the Punjab. The purpose was to deny them judicial relief in a naked act of revenge by rulers who know that the strength of the masses spells the death knell for their illegal rule.

Mr. Zardari is cleverly playing Musharraf. and his regime at its own game. Just as Musharraf. claims he wants reconciliation, Mr Zardari echoes him. And as Musharraf.'s provincial goons beat up innocent PPP supporters, Musharraf. is exposed as a petty tyrant.

The PPP and Mr. Zardari are pushing Mr. Musharraf. into a corner. They are well aware that while Musharraf. proclaims dialogue, there is no substance to the dialogue. They are aware that Musharraf. is in contact with Mr Nawaz Sharif. It is a well known secret that the establishment has asked Mr. Nawaz Sharif to send his brother back to Pakistan. However, the condition is that he must leave the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy to pave the way for his eventual cooperation with the ruling PML-Q.
Mian Nawaz Sharif has assured Ms Benazir Bhutto that his party will support the 1973 Constitution. Even if Shahbaz Sharif agrees to the establishment's terms to return to Pakistan by leaving the ARD, he will be a divisive factor for the ruling PML-Q.

With both Mr. Zardari and Mr Sharif in Lahore, the PML-Q legislators will smell that their days with the Choudhries are over. They will begin to make new alignments which will result in the collapse of the PML-Q.

PPP realizes that Mr. Zardari's presence in Lahore, and the ostentation about the (non) reconciliation is going to frighten the hardliners in the security apparatus. However, all they will end up with is not one but two personalities in Lahore both attracting the members of the disintegrating PML-Q.

Mr. Zardari's arrival in Lahore witnessed unprecedented disinformation. Mr. Zardari was informed that he was under arrest. He and the Vice President of the PPP were taken away under heavy police escort and kept incommunicado. While their liberty was snatched from them, the media accompanying them was manhandled. And while Rome burnt, the provincial Nero, Pervez Elahi, was claiming that the government had provided security to Mr. Zardari at his request and there was no restriction on his movement.

He also claimed that no one in the Punjab had been arrested although 21,000 PPP workers were being held under shamianas (open tents) in jails because the cells were packed.

Constitution, law and rights were brutally trampled to implement the fascist agenda to crush the pro democracy reception to Mr. Zardari who became a symbol of the fight against tyranny. A private plane chartered by supporters of Mr. Zardari was refused permission to land at Lahore after its manifest list was demanded. All roads were blocked, trains stopped and buses banned.

It took great courage for a man imprisoned for eight years to return to his country knowing he could be arrested again. It took strength to leave behind children who had grown taller than him in his absence. But Mr. Zardari took the risk knowing that as he stepped onto the soil of Lahore, every effort would be made to undermine his standing.
The regime has begun churning the wheels of disinformation. It claims that Mr. Zardari and the PPP are about to join the regime and give up the PPP's principles of democracy and human rights. But this is nothing new. Ever since Musharraf. came to power, news of a deal with the PPP kept being fed to the public. It wasn't true then and it isn't true now.
PPP has its principles for which Mr. Zardari battled from his prison cell. It has issues and its issues include restoration of supremacy of parliament and the constitution and fighting against poverty, unemployment, inflation.

There were those who thought that a mountain of politically motivated cases would crush the PPP leadership. They were wrong. The PPP faced that propaganda campaign against it pegged onto the judiciary with a clear conscience. They did it despite the fight being taken to Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Attock, London and Geneva. This shows a remarkable determination and an iron will.

It also shows a deep belief and faith in the values and goals for which they are struggling. Some in the administration claim that the so called Swiss case will bring Ms. Bhutto and Mr. Zardari to heel. That is a miscalculation. A Swiss magistrate's adverse finding in 2003, at the height of the constitutional crisis against General Musharraf., failed to get the PPP to reverse gear. They are unlikely to bow before another Swiss magistrate.

Their battle is for hearts and minds. Mr. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto went to the gallows without sacrificing on principles. Ms. Bhutto and the PPP are not going to settle for anything short of democracy and human rights.

The PPP has claimed that there is a difference between a dialogue and an agreement. The regime agrees with it that there is no deal. The PPP senses that the regime is talking dialogue without intention to transit to democracy. If the regime thinks that it can eat its cake and keep it too, it is wrong.

PPP will test every statement it makes for conciliation and if the ground reaction is as it was at Lahore, it will establish the untruth of the regime's intentions before the public at large.

According to insiders, the regime is still bent on fractionalizing the PPP. If forced with a fresh election, it would like to create another IJI as it did in 1988 to counter the PPP. There are those in the establishment who do not wish to see a confrontation between the people and the army. They recognize that PPP is a reality.
But there are others who blocked Makhdoom Amin Fahim's path to premiership in 2002 because they wanted the Choudhries to benefit. Those elements are still close to Musharraf.

Musharraf claims he wants moderate enlightenment. If that is what he wants, he will have to stop the ruling PML-Q from violating the constitutional rights of the people. If he doesn't, he won't get an enlightened society. He will get the very opposite.

In the present scenario it is highly unlikely that the Musharraf. regime will give a level playing field to the PPP. The regime knows that if it does so, its allies in the PML-Q will face a crushing defeat. It is more likely to give a level playing field to the MMA.

However, the PPP is forcing attention to the lack of level playing field. If Mr. Zardari had stayed abroad, the regime could have gone on saying that it wanted reconciliation with the Opposition without delivering on it. Now it will either have to deliver or be exposed