Shaheen Sehbai has returned with yet another conspiracy theory about secret, sinister plans being hatched behind the scenes by the PPP leadership. But this latest conspiracy is nothing new, and is really just a repeat of the same old script.

In his article of Monday, Sehbai accuses the government of hatching a sinister plan to hold onto power. What is this sinister plan? Apparently, the government is planning to complete its term.

According to Sehbai, the PPP leadership is hatching a scheme “to extend the present conglomerate of power-sharing at the Centre and in the provinces for so long that all threats, including General Kayani and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, retire and get out of their way.” But wait…General Kayani and Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry both are serving terms that end in 2013 – the same year as the present government’s term ends also. So is this “sinister plan” really just the government planning to complete its democratically elected term? According to Sehbai, the answer is yes.

An indication of the plan has already been given by Opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan who has candidly admitted that he saw no prospects of a general elections in 2012, meaning that the present assemblies will complete their five-year term and the pressure for early polls was no longer being felt.

In other words, Shaheen Sehbai believe that the government planning to finish its democratically elected term amounts to an “extremely dangerous plan” and “a twisted scheme”.

Actually, Sehbai’s latest conspiracy is just the latest version of Shaheen Sehbai’s worn out anti-Zardari script. If you remember, when the present government was first elected, Shaheen Sehbai was part of a vocal group of Zardari haters whose personal animosity for the president was so strong that they declared the government a failure before it even began. With each passing event, the Zardari Haters Club predicted the imminent fall of the government, and each time they were proven wrong.

As the years passed, the script began to change. No longer was Zardari an incompetent and bumbling joker, now he was an evil genius whose diabolical schemes knew no limits.

Shaheen Sehbai then proceeded to beg other political parties to “stop Zardari & Co”, only to turn his attacks on those same parties when they did not fulfill his wishes. Eventually, Sehbai’s personal hatred for Zardari was reduced to petty insults and factual errors.

For its part, the government has responded to Sehbai’s latest piece by simply stating the obvious:

“There is no sinister plan underway and the government is fully committed to the norms of democracy. All constitutional institutions will complete their term specified by the constitution of Pakistan and speculating otherwise tantamount to mockery of constitutional institutions, the spokesman has added.

“The spokesman has further said, we must acknowledge that the will of the masses is the basis of the authority of government and everyone should respect the mandate given to the government by the people of Pakistan. The civilian and democratically elected leadership of the country is working to make Pakistan as a safe, secure, democratic, modern and progressive country where there is respect for the rights of the people and an assuring environment for the citizens at large to progress and develop their skills and passions.

“Moreover the democratically elected civilian government has respect for the judiciary and will continue to do so. On the other hand the government and the national security institutions are working together to strengthen the defence of Pakistan.

“Finally, democracy is a matter of great patience. It may seem amusing to few to dislodge a government prematurely or demand mid-term elections every now and then, but true democracy lies in governmental stability between scheduled national elections.”

In response, Sehbai has said that it would be better if the government focus on important issues rather than “what I write”. We agree. We also think it would be better if The News and Jang Group would focus on important issues rather than continuing to run repeats of worn out conspiracy theories and petty political attacks.