Protractedly sick and tired of unholy nexus among military power, feudal lords and corrupt politicians plus power-wielding bureaucrats with alien links, the common people in Pakistan realise bitterly that the ‘failed state’ can’t survive without a full-fledged parliamentary democracy and a vibrant civil society. This agonising but growing reality is inexplicably ignored by political analysts who are obsessed with issues like Kashmir dispute and Indo-Pak border disturbances, which have a partial link with international arms trade. Dr Farid Malik, former chairman, Pakistan Science Foundation, succinctly points out the Pakistanis need a siyasat (politics) backed by nazarya (ideology). An admirer of Baccha Khanand, his son Wali Khan, whom he praised for never having sought power or authority, he seems wishfully thinking of revival of a polity with such sterling politicians at the helm, although he makes no bones of the fact that he had grown up in a family of Muslim League. When his party was called upon to form coalition governments with Maulana Mufti Mahmud’s Jamiat-i-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) in NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan, he nominated his party members for various posts whereas for himself he kept the position of rahber (guide). In 1975, when Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto dismissed his provincial governments, he was kept in confinement and tried for treason in the Hyderabad Conspiracy case, yet he refused to compromise,” Dr Malik recently wrote in a leading Lahore-based English daily.
The PPP is split, but not at the top. It’s guided by the Zardari doctrine whose motto is governance based on pragmatism while populism is an ephemeral point needed only during elections. The perception that there is a schism in the party with its toothless chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari aiming at a Leftist turn and revival of foundations of nazarya is imaginary. The status of Bilawal is so inessential that he went missing on the party’s all-important Foundation Day, held in Lahore last November. Prominent columnist Mahir Ali, younger brother of Tariq Ali, wrote to this correspondent, when asked to confirm about the veracity of Bilawal’s Left-ward propensity: “There have certainly been disputes and tensions between father and son. However, I would be extremely surprised to find Bilawal leading a leftward shift.” In fact, months back, Zardari reportedly told party members that he would like Bilawal to “tread cautiously and have a temporary break from active politics”.
Pakistan’s left-leaning political analyst Nadeem F Paracha wrote that the PPP-led coalition government was volatile because of its unpredictable coalition partners like the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and also Awami National Party. Which was why the Zardari regime was uninterruptedly besieged by a hostile – behaving in a reactionary manner – electronic media “allegedly being instigated in this regard by some leading members of the military – establishment”, thanks to Zardari’s pragmatic, stoic and Machiavellian style of politics. All this paved the way for a disastrous performance of PPP.
One can’t blame Bilawal, pointed out Paracha, that unlike his mother and grandfather – both having been the prime minister with popular support, “Bilawal did not come to the party on the back of vigorous political activism and jail sentences dished out by military dictators”. His father too was dragged into courts and lockups but with siyasat sans nazarya.
Unfortunately, there is not a credible and democratic alternative to the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) which remains a ‘mistress of establishment’ which is characteristically military-feudal-bureaucratic. Time was when the National Awami Party upheld the banner of secularism whose importance was felt by Jinnah only after the birth of Pakistan. Today, the ANP, a torso of NAP, is frail and afflicted with filial factionalism. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, led by former cricket captain Imran Khan, lacks the guts to firmly condemn terrorists although the Pak military leadership is distancing itself from the Talibans and other outfits preaching ‘Political Islam’. Chief of Army Staff Command and Staff College, Quetta – General Raheel Sharif – categorically stated a few months back: “War against terrorism and extremism is being fought for future generations.” There is no denying that for the task of combating violent extremism, contemporary Pakistan is the most daunting challenge for Pakistan as this strain of violence bedevils the democratic establishment, its fragile nature notwithstanding.
Nonetheless, new isles of optimism are afloat. Unbelievable as it may appear to many (albeit disappointing for many defence and strategic analysts who cash in on disputatious collaboration between India and Pakistan), a section of political intelligentsia in Pakistan likes Islamabad to rid of obsession with Kashmir issue. Former Pak Ambassador to Afghanistan and now a columnist, Rustam Shah Mohmand, wrote candidly that the two countries have been fruitlessly keeping up strained relations for about seven decades and “have fought three wars and have lived in a state of confrontation. One-fifth of humanity has endured suffering on an unprecedented scale. The cost of confrontation is unquantifiable – in terms of lost opportunities, absence of trade, lack of focus on poverty eradication, inadequate financial allocations for education, health care and sanitation.” The two countries fail to emancipate millions of people from “chill penury”. The former diplomat laments that nearly “ 27.4 per cent Pakistanis live in severe poverty, with there being more than seven million children who don’t go to school; 40 per cent of children in Pakistan drop out after primary classes. Sanitation programmes cover only 35 per cent of the population.”
Saner elements of Pak intelligentsia (a steadily rising sub-class) want Indian peaceniks to openly sympathise with the struggle for nazarya-driven siyasat, especially among defenders of a full-fledged parliamentary democracy. This segment – small but committed – believes that “vested interests on either sides or border” do not want the Kashmir imbroglio to be solved amicably. (IPA Service)
