By Brig® Mehboob Qadir
Email: clay.potter@hotmail.com

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In the Kingdoms of the yore it was a tradition to appoint a vice regent by a royal decree in
order to put to rest speculations of who was the next king out of so many aspirants and also to
prevent a possible war of succession.It was also meant to train the young prince in statecraft
and let him form his own team, something like the shadow cabinets of established democracies
these days.Then also the imperial army would play an important role as the custodian of the
kingdom’s integrity during the transition and also the final arbiters in case of a tangle ,of who
will be the king.That is why the army commanders were either royal kinsmen or trusted
warlords.This tradition of stability under military’s umbrella in forming national governments,
particularly in the third world countries lingers on to this day.Much can be said about this but
suffices to say that in such a transition lot depends upon the military commander of the day’s
quality of his make up, level of self-restraint and clearer understanding of the assigned role
under the system sans ambition and seduction of the power.

We were talking of the Vice Regent, see his plight. This man must remain at his wits’ end to
exercise his restricted authority under the watchful monarch without startling him. Appear
completely docile to the pillars of the durbar and foresee the intent of the king towards
important matters of the kingdom.He must continuously keep the army commanders in good
humor and show needful tactical deference to their sentiments. Also make the inner coterie of
the king feel secure and significant carefully courting their favorable view. Within these
limitations he must work his way to the throne walking on a tight rope. Only few succeed in this
royal trapeze and the one who does is either a genius or greater evil.

Meteoric rise of our Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi reminds one of more or less of such a
prince or rather the subject of Machiavelli’s famous handbook The Prince.He shows
remarkable political talent and an acute sense of the moment ,it is therefore in order to review
this rising star’s ascent from a virtual life in shadows to the coveted caretaker Chief Minister of
the largest province and on to the Senate and Federal Interior Ministry including head of the
PCB in a period of less than three years.By that token his next perch is more likely the Prime
Minister of Pakistan ,that is what one would aim at if in his enviable position and flight
trajectory.But that is not enough.Why? We will see shortly.

CNN was the first noteworthy network to identify his talent and appointed him as their
correspondent in Pakistan.His sharp political acumen soon began to detect important
power players on his radar which he began to befriend diligently. He first made friends with Zardari and
got licenses for his own TV channels where he projected Zardari as the ultimate political genius
and was rewarded lavishly by that benevolent robber baron.He made deep inroads into
Zardari’s decision making loop earning his confidence such that he was the one with Zardari’s
money bags sitting in Sindh House buying PTI MNAs before the infamous VoNC.By the
timeVoNC was tabled he had set up a sizeable stable of lame horses to topple the
government.Not an ordinary achievement for a player dribbling quietly on the margins of
power.During the height of palace intrigues before Imran Khan’s government was toppled ,one
remembers seeing him emerging with many others from Zardari’”s Islamabad residence and
somebody loudly said ‘ Mark this man’.He probably knew his deadly capacity for cold blooded
conspiracy.

As CNN correspondent he started making way into powerful Pervaiz Elahi and Shujaat
families as part of the second prong of his plan.There he got an opportunity of his life to marry
into influence.He spotted Pervaiz Elahi’s orphan niece ,cast his spell and proposed to her.Soon
they were married providing him a strong and well known political family’s support and
prestige to work on his still nascent but driving political ambition .One wonders if his political
ambitions were ever nascent, they were perhaps more kept under wraps in order not to startle
other hopefuls as also to maintain a mask of docility and reliability. Typically he began to court
other heavy weights in PML(N), GHQ and major businesses to multiply his future options .In
that he dug up and dusted his kinship with the present Army Chief and also became a chum of
Shehbaz Sharif.Very early on he had spotted the need for a reliable contact between the
various power camps in the country and crafted his role accordingly.That suited his go-between
nature very well and pleased his task masters wonderfully.

The leading trick of his trade was complete confidentiality and projection and later as the
sole empowered imperial emissary under the mask of a pliant, harmless looking pudgy faced
errands runner with a lilting gait and illusion of an ever present faint smile.More about the
empowered emissary we will discuss subsequently.However he was intelligent enough to
detect and stash chronic weaknesses of his ambitious clients for manipulation in future which
he did very skillfully. What a masterful deceptive robe for the eventual iron fisted and heartless
caretaker CM Punjab that he turned out to be.Police atrocities under his watch as CM have
been unprecedented in brutality, comprehensive criminality and utter disregard for law of the
land and fundamental human rights. Never saw a wheelchair borne sick woman protester being
dragged like a sack of potatoes over the road by a dozen cheering Punjab Policemen her drip
line trailing behind and arrested. The other his hand full into the young woman’s buttoned shirt
dragging her like a captured war prize before hundreds of protesters to the prisoners van. Who
else could torture a specially enabled adult mercilessly , kill and throw him overboard upon the
Lahore Cantt fly over just because he was seen frequently in Zaman Park?

Wanton destruction of houses, midnight raids and warrantless arrests,dozens of simultaneous FIRs in far off areas against the same individual,interning female political prisoners in windowless iron prison vans

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under roasting46 degrees summer sun for hours are but a few vicious practices which he
allowed with his typical mechanical smile. Credit must be given for the ingenious way law was
weaponized under his watch to hound and coerce opposition, which had never occurred to any
provincial CM before him at this scale .However these brutal practices of lawfare upon own
citizens have all the sinews of a ferocious boomerang in future.

He has predatory instincts where he lies in ambush and can wait for the prey to make a
mistake and then pounce upon him for a kill.He also likes to set up a trap,lure and then kill the
prey, where rules of the game are his very own, not what may be current or well
established.This is the game he played with PTI protesters again and again who thought right to
protest was a constitutional right.Their leadership paid for their foolish naivete with killed and
maimed workers,disappeared dead bodies after 26 November Islamabad massacre, arrested
and tortured leaders and what is more repeatedly failed agitations. His finesse lies in his
uncanny ability to play one party against the other without getting into the line of fire or leave a
footprint.His sharp sixth sense detects a slight list in the ship much before many and helps him
to get on the next before it sinks. The other card is his ability to assure his insecure but highly
placed patrons of his capability to consolidate their wavering positions.He proved his expertise
to manipulate involved but sensitive matters when after effective lobbying with Shehbaz Sharif
and Zardari he got his favorite elevated to the most powerful slot in the country .The next and
the universal dangerous trait of such creepers is to throw the patron under the bus who has
been exposed or about to be ejected by the system.As caretaker CM Punjab women and
children were indiscriminately arrested and being subjected to torture under his watch.When
asked,it is learnt,he and his equally ambitious spouse would shrug their shoulders saying they
were helpless the orders were from the ‘Black Knight’.

It was through his dextrous genius that probably for the first time the Rangers fired teargas
and shotguns at the protesters at Faizabad fly over , were the ones who illegally broke into the
Islamabad High Court premises and very insolently arrested Imran Khan.Thus pushed the
Rangers effectively into anti people hostile camp.Next maneuver was even more evil and a
terrible blow to the national unity much like a sabotage, but he could not careless for anything
to politically promote himself.He knew very well that the Army’s stock and credit with the
people were at the all time low due to various missteps of its own but it remained a formidable
make and break force on the country’s power chessboard.He was quite confident of being safe
and inscribed firmly in the GHQ good books which he had painstakingly cultivated including
kinship with the Army Chief.From this secure bastion he seems to have plotted to disable if not fully elimnate this powerful armored challenger to his eventual rise to the top of the state
power and authority.Untill then he would keep manipulating this force as his guarantor in being
and a sure ladder to the roof top.

He should be considered the master craftsman to had planted the seed of PTI’s last protest
march to Islamabad , very cunningly lured them into the D Chowk killing fields. Once done he
brilliantly deceived or may be co-opted GHQ to take over security of Islamabad just then.GHQ
were made to walk their unsolicited talk tricking them into compliance.As they deployed troops
to face the charged PTI protesters he allowed the Army to shoot at sight.That did the Army in,
they played into his hands and literally overnight became the arch villains of the piece before
the people’s eyes.Quite unthinkingly the lights were switched off ,snipers and troops let loose a
hail of bullets into the massed protesters , even chased and were seen to have shot them in the
side alleys of the Blue Area.In one master stroke he smashed the PTI’s final heave with
unprecedented savagery and blunted the sharp edge of the Army’s interventionism into regime
making for times to come.The Army regrettably has suffered a crushing blow to its remaining
prestige and will require a truly herculean effort to regain what it lost to a slick swindler for
pittance.

One can pin part of the badge of disrepute to the High Command door which appeared cozy
in their mistaken sense of insolation from popular ire maintained a’dignified silence’ at just the
wrong time, as also let mental drift set in , in their reactions to the strident accusations of
complicity in the PDM/caretakers wrong doings.Incalculabe damage was done by the roving
bands of faceless masked Vigo riding bandits who went around barging into houses, arresting ,
kidnapping and torturing citizens mainly PTI affiliates.The accusing fingers kept pointing at
us.But quite inexplicably GHQ and ISI steadfastly refused to address this menacing campaign
despite one’s repeated warnings and suggestions, and resultantly got the entire blame credited
to our already pauper account.

Naqvi seems to have a bag full of tricks hung over his shoulders.Like an octopus his tentacles
are spreading quite fast. But before that lets recap that his reported aim declared among the
close circle is to be the next Prime Minister for which he seems to be already maneuvering his
pawns and knights into strategic positions, of which quite a few have already been placed.But
this is not enough his gaze is fixed beyond. He has reportedly said that he should be able to
decide who rules the country .A king maker in being.He has been quie mindful of cultivating rich
and influential businessmen mainly to smoothen his way up but also to pick up expenses where
required. Mind you in the game of power expenses are really huge which he did not have the
purse to meet therefore the rich businessmen in the guest gallery.

All said and done after a long time we have a nimble dancer on our political stage whose
precise movements have the crisp quality of an expert ballet performer. Let the opera begin.