Scaring the world to stay in power
M.K.DHAR
It is ironical that even when General
Pervez Musharraf convinces the USA that without him no meaningful battle
can be waged against the Jehadis, his policies give more strength to
them. Today much of Pakistan is on the verge of going under the control
of Al Qaeda and the Talibans. As it is the frontier area is being
literally ruled by their diktat. Now the General is sparing no effort to
get another term in office for himself.
Facing the worst crisis of his career, with
mounting opposition from every corner and Pakistan's slow descent into
anarchy, Gen Pervez Musharraf has managed to survive, regardless of
whether he delivered on the promises he had made to the Americans to
fight terrorism and restore full democracy in his country. With a series
of calculated moves, he has created a situation where the Bush
Administration is forced to admit that his presence at the helm is
essential to the anti-Taliban campaign in Afghanistan and also safety of
nuclear weapons, which could otherwise pass into the hands of Jehadis.
Even though he attended the US-sponsored
jirga of village elders and others from Afghanistan and Pakistan in
Kabul, his commitment to eradicate Al Qaeda and Taliban, who cross over
from their sanctuaries in Pakistan remains in doubt. He and President
Hamid Karzai may have stopped trading charges in public for now, but
there is deep suspicion among Afghans of Musharraf 's intentions because
he does not consider the present regime in Kabul as friendly or
subservient to him and even anti-Indian.
After US officials, congressmen and
presidential hopefuls among Democrats and Republicans hauled Musharraf
over the coals for sheltering Al Queda and not preventing Taliban
fighters from crossing over to Afghanistan and advocated direct military
action against targets inside Pakistan. President Bush tried to mollify
him. The accusations rattled the Musharraf government, already reeling
under domestic turmoil arising from an anti-military campaign led by a
resurgent civil society, an assertive Press and judicial activism.
During Musharraf 's presidency two of Pakistan 's four provinces have
passed into the hands of fundamentalists who openly side with Al Qaeda
and Taliban. The fundamentalist elements whom Musharraf had vowed to
combat have, for tactical reasons, been his steadfast supporters because
he promoted them against mainstreams political parties, such as Pakistan
People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League (N).
The expected reward was in fundamentalist
leader of the opposition in Parliament, Maulana Faslur Bahman publicly
supporting another five-year term for Musharraf and his continuing to
don his Army Chief's uniform to deal with the deteriorating security
situation in Pakistan. When Gen Musharraf seized power he pledged to
ensure peace and security and to eradicate corruption, but he did
neither. Pakistan today is more insecure than at any time since its
birth sixty years ago and corruption has broken all records, even within
the Army, which has been the biggest beneficiary of about $ 12 million
in official US aid to Pakistan. The reach of the military now extends to
so many enterprises that it has emerged as the biggest corporate entity
in Pakistan.
Further, with over 400 serving and retired
officers from Defense forces appointed as heads of various government
departments and public undertakings, Musharraf 's control over the
administration is complete. He has also chosen his army top brass with
care and appointed loyalists as Corps Commanders as also to the General
Head Quarters. At each crisis points Musharraf summons the GHQ and gets
endorsement of his policies. The GHQ issued a very intemperate statement
during the crisis over Chief Justice Iftikhar Chowdhary 's removal, but
must have regretted having done so after he was reinstated and Musharraf
's plea was dismissed. The supreme Court's direction that Nawaz Sharif
and his brother Shahbaz Sharif have a right to return to Pakistan, both
being its nationals means another setback for Musharraf, who will now
try to counter the move.
Curiously, military regimes see even their
version of democracy as a means of managing political turbulence and not
organic institutions addressing the needs of a sustainable pluralistic
society. Any criticism of the military regime is seen not as an audit of
the government, but as an attack on the state itself, punishable as
treason. States under military rule are inherently weak because they
lack a genuine functioning democracy, which would reflect and satiate
people's aspirations of a better and all-inclusive life.
The US and other military allies tend to
take a very superficial view of democracy in Pakistan because they do
not exclude a lead role for the Army for implementation of their
strategic objectives in the region. In Pakistan's case, democracy must
be accompanied by institutional reform and undoing the legal and
constitutional wrongs committed by the military. These include
separation of the powers between the three branches of government,
separation of religion and the state in all spheres of political,
economic and social activity, separation of civil society from
government, separation of elected representatives of legislatures and
the executive, separation of the responsibilities and functions between
the federal government and local governments and separation of facts
from assumption and imbibing a bright vision of the country's future.
There are sure signs of creeping
Talibanisation campaign in Pakistan that is spreading from remote tribal
areas to towns. Like-minded religions vigilantes in the NWFP have asked
parents to pull out their daughters from schools and have forcibly
stopped female school teachers and health workers from going to work.
Such vigilantes are backed by Muslim clerics who have set up a parallel
Islamic judicial system to try those who they believe to be involved in
"immoral" acts. While many Pakistanis agree that the growing influence
of radical Islam presents an increasingly serious threat to Pakistan 's
internal political stability and regional security, Musharraf 's
government has done little to stop it. The military is accused of
allowing the radical mullahs to act with impunity to protect General's
rule by pandering to the fundamentalists. Few believe that the
Government is helpless or incapacitated against zealots in other parts
of the country to emulate the trend set by radical elements.
While the Government pursues a policy of
appeasement of Al Qaeda and the Taliban- friendly parties in NWFP and
Balochistan, the militants have stepped up their terrorist activities,
targeting the Army and top government officials. The multidimensional
crisis threatens to fragment the country along political, religious and
ethnic lines. This also raises serious questions about Musharraf 's own
survival in power. He has announced his intention to seek re-election
for another term in uniform (his Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has already
announced the dates). In fact the US has not raised any questions about
his occupying the Army Chief's post as well and keeps talking about
Musharraf 's indispensability in the war against terrorism. But,
Musharraf is not obliging, nor delivering on the many promises he has
made.
In order to dampen the protects against his
government, broaden his narrow political base and reassure his election
for another five years, he has been seeking allies among the mainstream
political parties. To please Washington he even traveled to Dubai to
meet Benazir Bhutto, but no deal emerged because she would not serve
under the Army Chief. She was warned by her party men that she would
lose her credibility by joining a military-led dispensation. As of now
political expediency too has not helped bring the two adversaries
together. But he does not seem to care because he is determined to stay
on by hook and crook. | 
