Theatre of absurd
By Dr Ijaz Ahsan June 27, 2008 If Pakistan's current political situation was to be shown on the stage, it would have to be as a farce. Today we have two comedians: the political parties, and the militants. The electorate gave the coalition partners a two-thirds majority to oust Musharraf and bring back Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.
However, more than four months after the new government was elected, precisely nothing has been done in either direction. To be honest, one cannot fault the PML-N in this connection. They have done their best to get both jobs done. However, unfortunately Musharraf's Deal with Benazir, continued after her death by her spouse, who is standing squarely in the way.
The gentleman has got all the benefits he could have derived from the agreement: all his corruption cases have been cleared; he has thus been saved both from the Swiss and Pakistani jails. Further, he is now free to contest elections and be elected as the prime minister. If he is not so inclined, then in any case he is still the leader of the PPP and hence the boss of the prime minister. However, the price is being paid by the nation. Undoubtedly as per the Deal, two of Musharraf's closest associates remain in charge of national affairs: Malik Qayyum continues as the government's legal advisor, and Rehman Malik is in charge of interior, the most important ministry. Therefore, it can rightly be stated that Musharraf's policies are being pursued even today.
Restoration of Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and his colleagues suits neither Musharraf nor Zardari: the former because the court could rule out his election as president and he would be out of his job; the latter because the court could rule the actions of November 3, including the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), ultravires of the constitution. This would revive the cases against Zardari, and he would be back to square one. So it is not surprising that both of them are doing all that is possible to prevent restoration of the judges.
On a hopeful note, Khwaja Asif of PML-N has just said on a TV programme that they have enough votes in a joint sitting of the houses of parliament to impeach the president. Further that, particularly after the passage of the Finance Bill which has provided for 29 instead of 16 judges of the Supreme Court, restoration of the judges is no problem. This would mean that, if the coalition has the political will, both these actions could be taken within a month at the most. In the meantime we wait and hope.
In the matter of the tribal areas also, things have been allowed to go too far. According to a report dated as far back as April 24, a certain Haji Mangal Bagh of Bara Khyber Agency had given a press briefing that he has full control of the agency through a 1,20,000-strong army under his command, and that he can mobilise this force at any time in any direction. According to a letter to the editor, "This report gives the impression that today there exists a New Kingdom of Khyber near Peshawar being ruled by His Highness Haji Mengal Bagh. If this is true, then we are reverting back to the time when such fiefdoms and kingdoms flourished in the region.
My only question is: what about the country named Pakistan?" To the best of this scribe's knowledge, no one has bothered to reply to this reader's question. Similarly, the Taliban seem to be knocking at the doors of every city in NWFP, ominously including even Peshawar. In this background, the chief of army staff has been made responsible for all actions taken in the tribal areas. However, it should be remembered that in the past, handing over certain areas to the Army have encouraged the latter to takeover the whole country. Repeated takeovers by the Army have resulted in such hatred of the force by the people that army men recently have been forbidden by their own bosses not to go about in public in their uniforms!
Hopefully, the army men will remember this, and not harbour desires of another takeover. But the politicians should also remember one thing: today it is impossible for the Army to take over. However, if the politicians continue on their present path, avoiding the solution to the major problems that are well within their power to resolve, ultimately a day could come when the Army may again want to try its hand in running this country, a job that it has done disastrously under previous military rulers.
After all, Ayub Khan gave away half our rivers, Yahya gave away half the country, Zia brought in heroin, Kalashnikovs and obscurantism, Musharraf allowed India to order Pakistan around after Kargil and after the attack on the Indian Parliament. So hopefully the military will not embark on another misadventure. To conclude, one can only say to the politicians, and specially the biggest political party: get on with the job!
The writer is former principal King Edward Medical College, and president College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan
E-mail: drijaz@nation.com.pk