History Does Repeat Itself in Pakistan

First, history briefly and than we will see in detail, how it is repeating itself.

Let us briefly refresh our memories about our last emperor who ruled this unfortunate country before General Musharraf. Symbolic scion of Shershah Suri and Mughals, Nawaz Sharif (NS) had a penchant for building roads and motorways and big monuments. He built Motorway / Prime Minister Secretariat and Lahore Airport. Billions of rupees were spent on these luxuries in a country where more than 60% of the population has not access to potable water. These scars on the face of nation will keep on haunting the tax payers for generations to come.

After the bitter experience of stepping down from the throne in 1993, Nawaz Sharif (NS) wanted to take no chances in his second term. He wanted absolute power. In his pursuit for power, he was imitating Bhutto. (And escaped a similar fate by the tooth of his skin- courtesy Clinton Administration and is now living in a comfortable exile in Saudi Arabia)

In his pursuit for power, he maneuvered 13th amendment which gave him powers unprecedented in the history of the country and brought the president to a mere ceremonial status. Under the ploy of eliminating horse trading, 14th amendment (barred the national assembly membership of any party member who did not obey the directions of his party leader) eliminated the chances of dissent within his party.

In a bid to mitigate any threat to his authority, NS collided head-on with Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC). His rouges stormed the SC which is considered to be the most respectable body in the country, at least for masses who always fear hattak-e-izzat (contempt of court). Result: SC tamed.

But this was still short to satiate his hunger for power.

The legal prostitutes were ready to oblige and came with yet another bill which would give him divine powers. However, Shariat Bill remained an incomplete job. (Perhaps is still on NS’s to-do list). Despite all the authority and power, he proved to be a tinpot pigmy.

He literally melted in the face of Kargil War (which PTV trumpeted as a skirmish). He handled it in the stupidest and most foolish way possible. His rushing to Clinton darbar and his abject acceptance of withdrawal of Army/Mujahadeen from Kargil heights made the masses feel ashamed of their existence. Definitely, we would have had to withdraw from Kargil, but like this? Shame.

Corruption was rampant and law and order situation was deteriorating day by day. Use of power was unchecked. NS also started tinkering with the so called only organized institution in Pakistan.

Heavy mandate pseudo Mughal emperor ditched the trust of the people. Nothing was good at that time in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

In this backdrop, Mush (as his Western buddies call him) was seen as a savior when we found him inadvertently the Chief Executive of this battered nation.

He had a formidable combination of luck. First he did not plunge to power, circumstances made him assume power. Such a thing is not known to people who see that kursi is most sought after thing on this earth for the ruling elite. Second Mush also had sympathies of masses as NS has sacked him in absentia and did not allow his plane to land in Karachi thus nearly killing him. Third and (also very important) he possesses danda. He was considered to be a sincere man who has the power to do something.

He was welcomed both at home and abroad. At home, people exasperated by the likes of Banazir and NS and their non-stop corruption would have thought that now things are going to change for good. On the other hand, perhaps affected by his modernistic rhetoric, West called Musharraf ‘the most progressive (man) Pakistan has had in a generation.’

General Musharraf was candid, straight forward person- rarities in our polity. When he spoke with a swagger of authority, be they journalists or politicians or any one, masses really liked him.

We as a nation enjoyed his brimming confidence. The dramatic event was the talk of the nation (would not be wrong if I say of the world) when he went to Vagpaee to shake his hand in General Assembly’s session. Vagpaee would have been stunned, to say the least.

On assuming power, tip-toeing his erstwhile bosses i.e., Ayub, Yahya and Zia, Mush also made tall promises which in nutshell meant making the country a utopia.

Initially, there was a lot of hustle bustle in the name of accountability which made people believe things are moving in the right direction. However, soon it would have dawned upon Musharraf that a true accountability would also take a toll from Army (both from serving top-brass as well as from ex-servicemen). He can not break the ‘pact of chivalry’ which bound all of them togather be they in service or retired. (Remember the famous Sheikh Rashid / Ejaz-ul-Haq Kalashnikov case where Sheikh served 3 years in prison while Ejaz-ul-Haq was released the same evening as the Kalashnikov he brandished was of plastic.)

The ‘pact of chivalry’ coupled with the fear of opening of a Pandora Box was enough to water his creases. Accountability was soon not a priority.

Ostensibly averse to dictators, West would have soon made him a pariah. But fate was on his side. WTC demolition was a blessing in disguise for him. In September 2001, when he gave in before the mounting pressure of United States to join its War Against Terror, he all of a sudden became an international figure. (By the way, Bob Wodward tells us that performance of our Chief of Army Staff/President was quite similar to NS’s when Bush’s cabinet called him)

Despite the fattened stature, General Musharraf wanted a semblance legitimacy to further bolster his international credentials. So he decided to add some democratic spice to his autocratic rule. After showing the farcical Referendum show for a third time in the country’s history, he resorted to politicians- the dirty lot always ready to help anyone and everyone in power. He cobbled together a system which is nothing else but status quo, perhaps even worse.

Masses were saved from the difficulty of finding new people for them. Many of the prisoners which NAB in its initial days trialed and sent to jails were honorably sworn as ministers in the new setup under the auspice of General Musharraf. Hail khaki democracy. Country was again back on track.

Another salient feature of Musharraf’s rule is honoring the ‘pact of chivalry’. Now men in uniform are ubiquitous. They enjoy unfettered power in any and all spheres. The have once again proved the old adage- power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Power is used in the most audacious manner by the men in uniform from lower ranks to top-brass to conquer their unarmed countrymen. They can not bear any dissent.

1. At Liberty Chowk Lahore, a traffic constable stops a car for some offence not knowing that sitting in the car is the wife of Lahore Corps Commander. Result: he gets the thrashing of his life at the vary hands who are paid to save him (but that is from external aggression. Sorry).

2. A lieutenant/captain rank officer drives his motorcycle in the opposite direction of a one way road. On being stopped by a traffic constable, he slaps him. Traffic constable, being a low educated person not knowing the powers of men in uniform reciprocates with a similar slap. The lieutenant leaves only to come back with a vengeance. Traffic constable is duly punished for his unpardonable sins. A USA/UK return tries to intervene but faces a similar fate. He was clever that he leaves the country immediately. Army imposes a Marshal Law (literally) on the shop by placing a placard saying ‘Out of bound for all and sundry.’ But shop had a better fate than the country and after ‘teaching the lesson’ to the shop owners, Marshal Law is lifted. [This whole issue was courageously taken up by Dawn along with an editorial written on this subject. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the dates]

3. There was a traffic jam on the road to Zero Point as construction work was going on. A public transport van tried to hurriedly cross through an unfinished patch of the road. It is taken as a personal insult by the military men doing dual job of construction and to control the traffic. Poor driver and conductor were asked to beg forgiveness for this ‘heinous crime’. Initially they dare to defy the orders but they were trounced with punches and kicks. They can’t bear it for long and beg forgiveness infront of almost a 1000 people but our men of honor are not satisfied. Poor men are asked to become murgha (readers who have studied in Government Schools would readily understand this humiliating punishment where a person has to touch his ears by taking his arms under his legs) and walk on road (do we need to complain about Indian Army’s maltreatment of youth in Indian Occupied Kashmir). While the show was on, for around an hour, traffic remains blocked on Zero Point road- one of the main arteries between Islamabad and Rawalpindi. But if our General can make thousand of people languish twice a day, every day (exceptions, holidays or when he is out of town) at the roads of twin cities while has motorcade is on it way to office or back home, don’t you think that his junior colleagues also have a right to do it atleast once a year.

Army also got exposed (perhaps for the first time, courtesy free press) for its corruptions. Youth like me, who revered it for immaculate character, got to know the real face. Few examples where our men in uniform have proven their mettle in a field which was previously considered a battle ground only for politicians.

1. General (Retd.) Amjad, who is their Chairman of Fauji Foundation has sold Khoski Suar Mill (a property of Fauji Foundation) to some of his favorite for Rs. 300 million while the highest bid received was Rs. 387 million. So much for General Amjad, once known to be ruthlessly honest man and erstwhile chairman of NAB.

2. Brigadier (Retd) Aftab Siddiqui, father in law of Bilal Musharraf first son of General Musharraf gets a contract to build world’s first Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) commercial train project in Karachi in partnership with M/s American Maglev Technologies (AMT). Without going into the details of the usefulness of this project for Karachietes, most of whom start making cues before dawn to fill a few buckets of water due to its scarcity, lets look at the financial burden it will put on tax-payers. As per analysts, the real cost of the project while working with Messer AMT & Aftab Siddiqui is around USD900 million (repeat US Dollar 900 millions) while a China would have done the same job for USD500 million and that too on easy loan. In the words of Mario Pozo’s Godfather, can someone from Government reason this project?

3. Pakistan Railway, under the able leadership of erstwhile ISI chief, General Javid Ashraf Qazi bought 69 defective engines from a Chinese company for USD100 million. Instead of following the procedures where first a few samples are bought to test the performance, all 69 were bought in one go. Public Accounts Committee responsible to investigate this deal suspects that ‘General Qazi and/or some others attached with the deal may have pocketed big commissions.’ The likelihood of General Qazi’s involvement is very high as he was solely in-charge of the import orders and took personal interest in the deal to the extent of taking the file personally to NSC and got it approved.

4. Reports about almost finished deal to buy Thermal Imaging Units from Thales (a French company) which would have charged USD 37 million more than the other bidder Sagem (also a French company) a very much public. The deal only got avoided 7 minutes before the final signing off on General Musharraf’s personal call to that effect. Otherwise a few million dollars would have been pocketed by someone (not a big quiz to guess, whom) and Pakistan would have lost millions of hard earned dollars collected thru heavily taxing the salaried class.

Major General Shoukat Sultan would be very delighted as now he has case studies to support his claims that whatever positions today Army servicemen or retired personnel have, it is only because of merit. He is damned right. They are leaving politicians far behind in this race.

General Shoukat also has something else to be proud off- an Army specialization. Land grabbing. An activity which perhaps started sincerely to provide better housing to servicemen (remember the pact of chivalry), has now become a tool to rob people from their life savings. Men in service have really taken pains to develop this science (of should we call it an art).

Non-existent land is being sold to innocent buyers who buy them for exorbitant prices believing that these schemes are managed by Pakistan Army- the saviors of this country. This has been done fastidiously at an unprecedented scale in this era of unfettered power.

Latest and till now the largest land scam unearthed is that of Lahore Defense Society by none other than General Musharraf, himself. Scale of the Operations going on in Gawadar and Rawalpindi is not known but we our Armed Forces have never disappointed us.

If ISPR has any tracking system in place, I am sure that image of Army is abysmally low compared to any other period in our history. Army is exposed fully with all its shortcomings. Now the dirty linens have to be washed in public.

Law and order situation is anything but under control. Masses are hardly able to catch the ever galloping monster of inflation. They are busy in solving the more and more confusing puzzle of making both ends meals with what little they have.

At this time, they have again observed the farcical local bodies elections which are non-party but our loud mouthed Information Minister said on air that everyone knows the reality (that the candidates are supported by different parties). Pre-poll rigging, as is the norm, was the rule of the day to bring suitable boys. While our temporary Election Commissioner did a lot of press conferences to prove that elections process is fair, I leave the judgment to reader about the sincerity of his efforts in ensuring free and fair elections when he allowed MNA’s and MPA’s to contest the local bodies elections without resigning from their seats and when he did not stop/is not able to stop pre-polling transfers of district officials with an aim to ensure election of suitable boys.

End of honeymoon with General Musharraf. Again nothing is good in Islamic Republic of Pakistan.