NAJAM SETHI EDITORIAL

‘Billa’ causes predictable dissension

The PMLN Information Secretary, Ahsan Iqbal, has swallowed the bait and interpreted the “multi-directional” attacks made by ex-ISI and ex-IB officer Brigadier (Retd) Imtiaz Ahmad alias Billa and accused President Asif Ali Zardari of running a Dirty Tricks Special Cell in the Presidency to slander Nawaz Sharif and other PMLN leaders. But all is not what it seems to the PMLN.

What is the objective of this “slander unit”? To cut down Nawaz Sharif’s massive popularity, says Mr Iqbal. He added to the conspiracy one more unnamed element scared of “the impending two-thirds majority that the PMLN chief would get in the next parliamentary polls”. Other gains from this evil machination are: “distraction of public attention from the huge corruption in the rental power projects and demands for Musharraf’s trial on high treason charges and undoing of the 17th Amendment”. For good measure he has added to the uncanny Army-Zardari combine inside the Presidency a third party of conspirators: the PMLQ as the front for General Musharraf who wants to avoid being punished and may want to stage a comeback by maligning the PMLN. Mr Iqbal has also claimed that his party had “hundred times more” scandals of the PPP up its sleeve, “but it followed principled politics”.

But the fact is that Brigadier Billa has squirted his allegations around indiscriminately and his victims are an all-parties affair. The PMLN should have kept quiet as it did when Rehmat Shah Afridi was allowed his moment in the sun. The TV channels are trotting Billa around to sell their time, but the man will get nowhere in the end. Mr Iqbal should have listened to Prime Minister Gilani when he said Billa was out to discredit all politicians.

The unwitting distraction offered by Billa is from the “national consensus” on hanging Musharraf. But hanging Musharraf may not be the top priority all over the world. For instance, the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, who keep us economically alive, think that the demand to “hang Musharraf” is a distraction from the more urgent task of fighting terrorism. *