Undeniably, 2016 belonged to the now-retired Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif, for abiding by his early announcement to retire on Nov. 29. But Sharif deserves more credit than that. He is also the solider who spearheaded Operation Zarb-e-Azb, as well as kept the military forces out of politics. This time, after many years, the transition was smooth. General Raheel Sharif passed on the command of the world’s sixth largest army to General Qamar Javed Bajwa, fourth in seniority among the men up for the slot. A seamless transition was important, and the need of the hour, to end all speculations on public airwaves about a possible extension.
The general’s decision surprised the Prime Minister, who at the time was travelling. According to those privy to the information, the premier later asked the solider why he didn’t want a new term. The general replied that he would rather focus on the military operation ongoing in the northern areas, plus such speculation would only hurt the moral of the forces. Regardless, it is also important to note that General Raheel Sharif’s tenure has also had its share of ups and downs. All eyes were on him during the 2014 sit-in by a political party in the capital. Islamabad was tense, and conjecture of a “hidden hand” was growing louder. It was during these circumstances that General Raheel advised the Prime Minister to avoid violence at all costs. The last thing the government needed was another fiasco on its hands similar to the one witnessed in Model Town, Lahore, which left 14 people dead.
While one Sharif had a good year, the other struggled through it. 2016 began for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on a high note, immediately after a surprise visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his hometown in Lahore. The flurry of visits continued, as next in town was India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Suraj. Those I spoke to this year, say that despite some disagreement between the civil and military leadership on national security and foreign policy issues, one major point of contention between the two was the high treason trail of former Army Chief General (r) Pervez Musharraf. The crises only deescalated when Musharraf was allowed to leave the country after his name was removed from the Exit Control List. But the issue, which really put the PM under immense pressure and scrutiny, came in April.
Photo: ICIJ
The now-released Panama Papers carried the name of the prime minister’s daughter and two sons. The leak about offshore companies had Nawaz Sharif frazzled. He made three back-to-back speeches in defense, two televised to the nation and one in the parliament. As we move to 2017, the crisis is far from over for the Sharif family. The Supreme Court will take up the matter again starting January.
The Panama Papers also proved to be a blessing in disguise for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan. The cricketer-turned-politician was rebounding from 2015, where his party was trounced in almost all by-elections as well as local body polls. This year Imran Khan made one bad decision after another. His call to shut down Islamabad, yet again, did not get any response from the other parties. Learning from that, the PTI chief has hinted at a grand alliance over Panama, rather than to go at it alone. Although, Khan’s attempts to dislodge the PML-N from government failed due to his disjointed and often lackluster way of doing opposition.
Since coming to power in 2013, Nawaz Sharif has not only survived major crisis but his party has solidified its electoral position, particularly in Punjab, by grabbing the slots of Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Mayor, Deputy in the local body polls. Sharif also enjoys the support of major political players like the JUI(F), National Party and even Awami National Party. While his equation with the PPP is on-again off-again, which may be the reasons for PPP’s vague Long March call last week.
Zooming out of the political arena, 2016 has been a decent year for the country. Operations Zarb-e-Azb and the military push in Karachi and Balochistan have improved the overall law and order situation. But attacks like the one in Quetta that killed over 70 people, mostly lawyers, still challenge the government’s writ.
As for the fourth largest party the MQM, 2016 was the year it was divided into three factions – the Pak Sarzameen Party was launched in March, 2016 by MQM’s former mayor of Karachi Mustafa Kamal, followed by Altaf Hussain’s anti-Pakistan speech which further split it into MQM-Pakistan and MQM-London. The support of the Karachi-based party was once essential to run the city. But today it is fragmented and damaged making it easier for the ruling party to ignore it.
Next year, the key players will be Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and Asif Ali Zardari. Only time will tell if 2017 will be the year of election campaigning or elections?
The writer is the senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang.
Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO
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