It was so strange not to listen to the typical ‘Mere Hamwatanon’ speech, for once! One major reason is that this time, no civilian leader was emptying the hot seat after being removed by the president, as happened continuously during the Nineties. Neither was the President of the country delivering a speech to justify his decision of removing an elected or selected prime minister from the seat, like Gen. Zia did with Junejo, or Ghulam Ishaq Khan did with Benazir Bhutto, or Musharraf did with Nawaz Sharif. This was also not an occasion when a usurper or military dictator was informing the bewildered nation suddenly at midnight or mid-day that the enemy had attacked us with cowardice in the night, or that we had lost the eastern arm of our country, or that another military president had been blown up in a C-130 plane, in mid-air.
This was a totally different status quo speech that was ever delivered on the national hook-up in the 61-year history of Pakistan! It was a speech by a military president, who, having doffed his uniform under people’s pressure, was now finally saying adieu to the President House, and giving excuses (or his version) of the allegations put against his name by an elected body of Pakistan. He eventually tendered his resignation after realizing that he had no friends left, and must leave before being charge-sheeted.
Only one ingredient of the previous status quo speeches remained in this historic speech of 2008, by Gen. (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf: the crisis!
Despite Musharraf’s resignation, the crisis remains as evident as ever. The fact that the two dominant national parties, who were always daggers drawn in the past, have decided to join hands to oust President Musharraf, is heartening, but that’s about the only iota of light you can extract from this whole situation. As political analysts point out on different channels and other media, there is no guarantee that these two national parties, once pressurizing President Musharraf to dismiss himself, won’t go hell for leather against each other now. The fact that they could not reach any agreements during their short stint as allies in the assembly, whether it be the decision to restore the judges, or regarding the fate of the ISI, or concerning the situation in the FATA, shows that they are a critical spot of bother. Their vision is not clear regarding this intermezzo between the larger symphonic orchestra called democracy!
There is no doubt that the removal of President Musharraf is a positive development with regard to positive precedents. Like other military presidents, he continuously issued ordinances against the workers, the teachers, the industry, etc. which are definitely oppressive dictations from the US. He totally ruptured the fabric of the constitution, and made a mockery of it with his dictatorial acts. Most importantly, he committed an act of breach of
people’s trust, who considered him a progressive man. If Gen. Zia negatively exploited Islam for the perpetuation of his rule, Gen. Musharraf exploited the Progressive Movement and its ideals to further his military dictatorship. While Gen. Zia proved a repulsive dictator due to his zinc-plated Islam, Gen. Musharraf struck terror amongst people after showing his progressive face at first. The first terror was unmasked by Zia in the 1980s, without any twist to it, since everybody knew that he reeked of an ancient understanding of Islam, but the second terror, unveiled on the unsuspecting public by Gen. Musharraf in 2001 and later, was hidden behind a progressive agenda, and so it became such a dastardly blow that people could not shield themselves from it. While Gen. Zia was obviously a conservative, and hid behind his crocodile tears, Gen. Musharraf put up a façade of diplomacy, which proclaimed ‘Enlightened Moderation’ on the outside but its secret file-cover said, ‘US policy Diktat.’ It wasn’t the same as Liberal Capitalism, was it?
But, if we want to realize what is happening in Pakistan since Nine-Eleven, and why Gen. Musharraf fell under this trance of globalization, we’d have to go back a little in time, and briefly see the situation in its real perspective.
It’s known that the US has always selected horses for courses! But one has to raise an eyebrow if one conservative president of America (Jimmy Carter) selects a conservative general of the Pakistan army (Gen. Ziaul Haq) to punish an elected, open-minded prime minister of Pakistan (Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto), while another conservative president of America (Bush) selects a seemingly progressive mind from the Pakistan Army (Gen. Musharraf) to accomplish the same job! Isn’t that a little confusing? But, this confusion lifts from the eyes and nerves, when you realize that at that juncture, when Gen. Zia was brought in, America was secretly planning the dissolution of the USSR, while Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was working on state policies to work more closely with Russia and China. So, you can, at least, understand that the US killed two birds with one stone by bringing in Gen. Zia, a man who they knew had very worn-out religious ideals. It was by design that they put Zia on the pedestal, and when Russia invaded Afghanistan, he was the right man for them, with military assistance for American interests, and for training the Mujahideen. With the inflamed region of Afghanistan de-freezing the Cold War, and finally dissolving the USSR, the American war policy about-turned against the Mujahideen, now called the rebellious Taliban. After the secretly gathered American armament was blown up in the Ojhri Camp and the Nowshera Blast, it was obvious that Gen. Zia would also have to go, even if in a mid-air explosion.
Meanwhile, the US, now the sole superpower, needed the people of Pakistan to avert their eyes from the immense problems that they were burdened with by Gen. Zia’s outdated policies. They needed to expand their world dominion, now that the USSR was no more. So, four short-duration so-called democratic rules were instituted, but only under the US-favoured godfathers like Ghulam Ishaq Khan, an old, cranky bureaucrat, and Farooq Leghari, a feudal lord and a professional politician. After this period of no-stability was over, once again, the US needed another military handyman in Pakistan, and so, in came Gen. Musharraf in the pilot’s seat, once the plane had landed, that is!
Now, after this short analysis, you can see that the US inducted a man like Gen. Zia in order to break the hegemony of the progressive powers in the region, in 1977, while they inserted a so-called progressive man like Gen. Musharraf, in 1999, to break up the hegemony of the so-called conservative powers in the region!
Can you see what kind of major turnarounds happened inside this small region, comprising Pakistan and Afghanistan, within just 30 years? These kind of 180-degree turnarounds are, at many junctures, fatal for nations and countries. These acute policy reversals break countries, as ours was broken in half in 1971! And that’s all the doing of the military dictators, and so-called war strategists. Let’s be fair to our civilian rulers - we haven’t had any such major time periods for them to run a policy consistently for more than two years at a stretch, while the military dictators, except Gen. Yahya Khan, have all had near about ten years in the hot seat. Almost a total of thirty or more years were taken up by the four military dictators. But even with the help of these military dictators, things could not have fitted in such perfect grooves if the US and CIA had not planned a decade in advance each time. That’s why it is claimed by insiders that the US Establishment, and the CIA have more psycho-analysts in their ranks than technocrats!
Coming back to Gen. Musharraf, due to the particular situation in the region, after 9/11, he was literally sitting pretty, while money from America poured in like manna from Heaven. Of course, with this kind of world aid coming your way, the General claimed that he had a massive amount of reserves in the bank. In fact, if the Asian tsunami had not happened at a crucial juncture, the world monetary institutions and other aid companies had not diverted such monetary flow, even more economic aid would have arrived at the federal doorstep in Islamabad. Well, all that changed after the NWFP earthquake. Now, not only monetary assistance from all over the world poured in, technical assistance, and all sorts of logistical help also turned up. With this kind of huge treasure laid at the feet of Gen. Musharraf, there is no excuse whatsoever, to say that he was short of monetary resources to initiate progressive projects or create welfare jobs for the people. All the world targets of poverty alleviation, or upgradation of small cities and villages, and meeting the health objectives should have been done, at least to a good degree of achievement. Yet, all that monetary help came to nothing, and half-finished projects in the so-called Devolution Plan at the grass-roots level proved hazardous to the people, as the disaster of the Right Bank Outfall Development (RBOD), and Left Bank Outfall Development (LBOD), which literally devastated Sindh, and broke up the cultural lifestyle of the commonfolks of this province. Similar is the case of the Gwador project, where no welfare plans were given and no training was imparted to the locals of the area. The whole area was crawling with Chinese and Korean technicians, yet, no technical classes were arranged for the local Baluchis. Without the transfer of technology, nothing is achieved. The locals remain the subjugated slaves of the Sardars of the area, and no progressive change is brought in Baluchistan. For them, it is the same thing as the long-drawn failure of the Sandak Project, initiated two to three decades ago.
But, this doesn’t mean that our political parties do not have to watch where they are going. The People’s Party, despite its national credentials, has always been a one-family party. Even today, Asif Ali Zardari is heading the party from outside the parliament. His son, Bilawal has arrived in Pakistan, immediately following the resignation of Gen. Musharraf. And that only proves that this party will not come out of its family politics, until the Prime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gillani learns to wear his shoes well. It is easy to see that Benazir Bhutto had finally arrived at the decision of flouting the Reconciliation Ordinance, and breaking the chains of Globalization, but she was assassinated on the change of her stance. She proved herself a brave woman in the end. But her hubby is not able to see any way out of it. Even a common worker of the PML(N), Javed Hashmi, understood the fact that unless he could do something brave in the face of adversity, he would not become a man to contend with. I can’t, for the life of me, understand why a cunning fox like Zardari cannot understand that all his years in jail are rendered null and void due to his bad reputation in the government in the Nineties. Without a brave act to bring a vital change in the ranks of the PPP, he would be just another player in the disgusting game of chess that has always been played without interaction with the people. If he cannot make a team within his party, which could formulate new people’s policies, what’s the use of his chairmanship of his party? If PPP has had a climbdown in recent years, it is because it has ceased to be the ideological party that it was. All the power that surged through the veins of this party was due to the fact that it had a manifesto, and its ‘Islamic Socialism’ basis provided it the energy that others of the Bhutto era could not grasp. Gamal Nasir of Egypt could not reconcile Islam and Socialism, which is why he blew up the ship carrying the clerics of Egypt. Similar is the latest case of Saddam, who changed the Iraqi flag once his Russian friends deserted him during the Gulf War, and put the Islamic Kalmah on it. This move was so sudden that everybody was disgusted by this double-facedness of Saddam. His allies left him in the lurch due to this incorrect policy. It was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto who stuck to his guns, even during his final act of defiance in the face of death! His Islamic Conference was a clear manifestation of it.
The only answer to the PPP’s revival is in bringing back its ideological flag. Otherwise, it will not come out of its downward trend, which sees not many committed, ideological politician in its fold, aside from some people like Aitezaz Ahsan, who practically exists outside the ranks today. This Islamic Socialism is the driving force that could change the existing laws that look good on paper but fall flat on practical grounds. And we know, by experience, that Zardari is not that kind of deep man, who could revive the ideological essence of the party. Though he made a pretty speech at the recent International Progressive Conference, but if that cannot be translated into acts, it’s all just lip service. As long as the ideological vestige of the party is restored, the party would continue to be infested by internal bickering and grave indecision. With the current crisis looming big, and both the national parties failing to reach any consensus on main issues due to non-adherence to their ideologies, the US is bound to take a hand in formulating the future of Pakistan.
As for the Muslim League (N), it looks better in its forthright behaviour. Despite the mediocre level of its political ranks, where no real revolutionary, diehard workers exist, Muslim League (N) can take heart in the thought that it is driven by the principled Sharif brothers. Even in this day of total chaos at the national level, Shahbaz Sharif has the guts to travel to the flooded areas and go through the trouble of inspecting all the problems personally, and dismissing officials and instituting inquiries against them. This personal example and sincerity of purpose make the Sharif brothers the two outstanding and forthright men in our politics. I don’t say that they are extremely intelligent, but they are definitely forthright, and that is the basic quality needed amongst our assembly of ‘professional politicians.’ Some new workers who have surfaced recently are very dedicated, but intellect is needed to formulate long-term policies, which show very few truly bright lights like Ahsan Iqbal. Javed Hashmi, though a seasoned politician now, doesn’t seem to be too bright in his thinking for the rank-building. Some vital portfolios have to be given to the right-thinking individuals in the Muslim League (N) in order to strengthen the base of the party for the future. Fortunately, for the Muslim League (N), it has managed to cut down on its list of feudal hierarchy in the party, which has popularized it over the years.
In this context, too many cooks are spoiling the broth. You see, the Lawyers Movement gave a good start to this new change in the political conditions, and Chaudhry Iftikhar bravely challenged the dictator, but now this movement is going off the rails a bit. Once again, it is due to indecision. Aitezaz is a sound human being and a fine leader, but he has now failed to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If these movements go up the stairs with the help of civic society, then it should end on the basis of principles. If political indecision is transferred to this level of public and social movements, then what’s the difference between political anarchy and social anarchy? In fact, social anarchy is even worse, which could give way to civil war, God forbid. This, also, eventually gives birth to public hysteria, which is a true killer for any nation. It should never come to this.
But, the most vital question here is that when a man like Musharraf has vacated the seat of the President, who can take his place? For one thing, in this seat, only a man with equal respect amongst the civic society and also integrity in the military ranks would have to be nominated. In this context, it is reported that the PPP circles, themselves, are not taking Zardari’s name. They mention the names of the Speaker of the National House, Fehmida Mirza, former federal minister, Aftab Sha’ban Mirani, and Zardari’s sister, Faryal Talpur! I don’t know what national stature Zardari’s sister has, but it is obvious that even the PPP circles are not nominating the chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, for the President. The PML (N) circles are mentioning the names of Balochistan nationalist leader, Ataullah Mengal, former chief justice, Sa’eeduzzaman Siddiqui, and the chief of Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Mehmood Achakzai. Amongst all these people, Sa’eeduzzaman Siddiqui is a retired judge, and could be a potent candidate on such a vital position as the President of Pakistan. Similarly, Mehmood Achakzai has a good reputation, and stature too. But Fehmida Mirza is also a woman of caliber and stature, and if she occupies this seat, she could be the first woman president of this country.
For the moment, both the non-elected leaders of the national parties could be considering the least bothersome president in the seat, someone like Fazl-e-Elahi or Rafiq Tarar. The trouble is that no such men exist today. There are even lesser chances of getting a Rafiq Tarar today, and more chances of being surprised by a Farooq Leghari. The most they could do is that if they have decided to choose a president in 72 hours (at the time of writing this piece), then the PPP and PML(N) should get together to move the resolution of restoring the 1973 Constitution in its original form, immediately after getting the new president in the seat.
That’s their best bet, for the moment!
