ISLAMABAD: Former law minister Babar Awan is trying to prove the old saying “All is fair in love and war” true in his case.
Awan used to curse the Bhuttos when he was representing the political parties that have been traditionally at war, politically, with the Pakistan People’s Party. Today, his love for the PPP, and for the Bhuttos, has shown him the heights that can perhaps be a dream of many diehard Jiyalas like Aitzaz Ahsan and others.
No matter how badly he abused ZAB, his daughter or the PPP, today he has grabbed the slot of a PPP centre forward. All born PPP leaders appear off-colour in front of Babar Awan, who has now the honour of defending Zulfikar Ali Bhutto before the apex court and clear his name as a convict from the judicial history of Pakistan. Three decades back, he used to raise slogans demanding death for ZAB.
It was unbelievable to see a PPP leader like Aitzaz, who has been closely associated with both the Bhuttos and had even undergone jail for the party, expressing his burning desire to assist the court in the ZAB reference and to be appointed by the Supreme Court as amicus curie in the same case.
No matter how much Babar Awan used to hate the Bhuttos, his love for General Ziaul Haq, who hanged ZAB, is also irrelevant today; it is now history that he distributed sweets on the hanging of Bhutto. The relevant fact of today is that Babar Awan has emerged as the great defender of ZAB in the present times, leaving all others behind. The PPP, nay Zardari, did not find anyone else but Babar Awan to redeem the honour of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
When television channels showed him approaching the Supreme Court building on Wednesday morning, he overshadowed everyone else and all those PPP big guns accompanying him. Syed Khursheed Shah, Pervez Ashraf, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Aitzaz Ahsan and several PPP MPs were not even noticed in the presence of the PPP’s great Babar Awan.
He sacrificed his cabinet slot to become eligible to represent the PPP in the ZAB reference. He though offered no comment when reminded of his anti-Bhutto past and said that he would have resigned even if he had been the prime minister of Pakistan to avail this golden chance of correcting the history and to reveal to the world what cruelty was perpetrated upon what he described “Shaheed Quaid-e-Awam Zulfikar Ali Bhutto”.
Talking to the media after the apex court adjourned the hearing of the reopened presidential reference case of ZA Bhutto, Babar Awan said he was thankful to Allah Almighty, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari and all party members on being chosen to accomplish this historical landmark.
Babar Awan was also treated exceptionally well inside the Courtroom No 1. He informed the Court that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto would himself speak through his tongue during the forthcoming hearings, arguing that a ‘Shaheed’ never perishes. He is a great orator and now he has got the best opportunity of his life to attain, politically, what he had perhaps never thought of.
Though extremely close to Zardari, he is hated by others, including even by many of those who accompanied him to the Supreme Court building on Wednesday.
The ZAB reference was said to be his brainchild, an idea that clicked with President Asif Ali Zardari. They say that they wanted to redeem the respect of ZAB in the judicial history but many others believe that it was moved to embarrass the apex court. No matter who intended what or who cursed whom in the past, Babar Awan thinks he has got the real chance to become a real leader of the PPP and get some genuine place in the hearts of PPP Jiyalas.
But he has also exposed himself to some difficult and embarrassing times. He may not answer media questions about his past and what he said about Bhutto then, but his opponents in the SC, people like Ahmad Raza Kasuri, will ask him before the full bench which of his statements should they believe — those he made 30 years ago or the ones he will make now. Kasuri, like Opposition leader Ch Nisar Ali Khan, will also produce clippings and pictures by the dozen in the SC when asking Babar Awan to clarify his past, or present. Maybe some judge poses that question too.
It would be a matter of great interest to see whether Awan apologises to the PPP inside the Supreme Court, or outside, for his past conduct. He will have to do that either way, if he wants the Jiyalas to respect him.



Awan takes a leap forward, but will he apologise?