october 2004

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Democracy’s 9/11 in Pakistan

By Abbas Zaidi

In Pakistan the media has been greeting Shuakat Aziz’s graduation from finance minister to prime minister with unrestrained euphoria. Newspapers and magazines have published editorials and opinions wishing him all the best. It was President-General Musharraf who wanted Shaukat Aziz to be prime minister in the first place. To comply with his desire the Pakistan Muslim League—General Musharraf’s political face and the ruling party—worked frantically to make Shaukat Aziz prime minister. Both General Musharraf and the Pakistan Muslim League have been claiming that since taking over in 1999 as finance minister, Shaukat Aziz has turned around Pakistan’s economy, and that as prime minister his performance will be nonpareil. How many finance ministers become prime ministers purely on account of their good performance?

     In Pakistan’s history no government’s claim of having worked economic miracles were ever disproved until it was replaced by another one. It is only by virtue of hindsight that Pakistanis have been able to find out that all previous governments’ economic growth figures were but bagfuls of statistical sophistries. Shaukat Aziz’s real or otherwise high economic performance can be put aside for a while because 28 August 2004 will be remembered as a sad day in the history of democracy in Pakistan. A day as sad as the one in 1979 when General Zia, General Musharraf’s dictatorial predecessor, hanged an elected prime minister. 28 August will also be remembered as the day of the death of the “power troika” that Pakistan’s journalists write about: the president, the [politician] prime minister, and the Chief of the Army. 28 August: a day when an imported bureaucrat—i.e., Shaukat Aziz of Citibank—joined hands with a general and compliant politicians, symbolising dismantling of whatever fragmented political structure Pakistan had. Now the President and the Army Chief are the same person, the politician is out, and the Prime Minister is a bureaucrat.

     In Pakistan democracy has been a weak institution. The role of the politicians is certainly blameworthy. But it is the army, in collusion with the bureaucracy, that has always undermined democracy. No prime minister in Pakistan’s history was allowed to complete his/her mandated term. The only exception is ZA Bhutto whom General Zia—Pakistan’s President, Army Chief and Chief Martial Law Administrator, all at the same time—hanged.

     It is not the first time that the army-bureaucracy alliance has taken place. In the mid 1950s the Army and the bureaucracy joined hands that led to Generals Ayub-Yahya martial law regimes that began in 1958 and ended only when in 1971 Pakistan was dismembered. In 1972 Pakistan became a democracy, but years of martial law had rendered the politicians less than savvy in politics. In 1977 General Zia devastated Pakistan’s polity by staging a coup and suspended parliament and constitution. His death in 1988 led to the restoration of democracy. But a politicised army and a Zia-groomed bureaucrat-president did not allow political institutions to flourish: from 1988 to 1999 Pakistanis were entertained by seven prime ministerial appearances, twice by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, and three caretakers. Thanks to General Zia’s anti-democracy policies, politicised army and bureaucracy, a partisan judiciary, and half-baked politicians (many of them retired army and air force generals), Pakistan has still not been able to recover from the damage that repeated army-led coups and governments have wreaked on its political life and culture. Today Pakistan is known as one of the most violent, intolerant, and dangerous countries in the world. It was nationally and internationally spoken of in terms of being a failed state till the United States came to its rescue after 9/11. Imagine what would have happened if 9/11 had not happened.

    Although Shaukat Aziz’s own political capital and contribution to Pakistan’s politics and civil society are non-existent, his prime ministership is a message to the people that politicians are incompetent and unreliable, and that it is only bureaucracy and the army—two intrinsically anti-democracy institutions in Pakistan—that are capable of running the government. General Musharraf has time and again ridiculed politicians, and justified all martial law regimes in Pakistan’s history on the grounds on national security.

     Sad to say, the role of politicians has been extremely regrettable. The majority of them are sophomoric; many of them are known for their cupidity and larceny. To them staying ingratiated with the all powerful army—also known as “Pakistan’s permanent government”—is more important than staying loyal to the ideals of democracy and civil society; it is also a good means of dealing with their political rivals. But far more significant fact to note is that no politician is allowed to take up an important office if he or she does not get a green signal from the Army. For example, in 1988 Benazir Bhutto had to hold repeated meetings with the then Chief of the Army Staff to become prime minister; she was allowed to take office only after she accepted that she would have no control of Pakistan’s foreign affairs and nuclear programme. Hence, in her cabinet the foreign minister was a retired general who had served General Zia in the same capacity. Nawaz Sharif was discovered and nurtured by the army, and later kicked out when he tried to assert his authority over the army Chief. The role of the Army’s “kept in store” politicians is interesting to watch. Chaudhry Shujat, President of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League and a politician by all means and ends, was instrumental in prime minister Zafarullah Jamali’s ouster to make way for Shaukat Aziz. Reportedly General Musharraf had become sick of Shaukat Jamali for not behaving as told to. Chaudry Shujat’s was the loudest voice claming that Shaukat Aziz would make a great prime minister. In Chaudhry Shujat history did repeat itself: In April 1979 when the world was mourning and protesting ZA Bhutto’s hanging, Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi—a ZA Bhutto hater and popularly known as the army’s best politician friend—was imploring General Zia to gift him the pen that he had used to sign off ZA Bhutto’s execution order. Chaudhry Shujat is Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi’s son. He is also known as the army’s best politician friend. His personal dislike of Benazir Bhutto—daughter of ZA Bhutto—is no secret.

Abbas Zaidi©Sept.2004