The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. Oscar Wilde wrote those unforgettable lines describing a situation when seasoned Lord Henry was trying to corrupt innocent Dorian Gray.
At times temptation is a curse. And decisions made under so-called “ethical temptation” are bound to fail sooner or later.
Jin Yan, associate professor at Zhejiang University, defined “ethical temptation” as moral judgment situations in which unethical decisions are made due to failure of self-control.
The theory leads to another question of fight between legalism and morals. In the Pakistani context this fight is not new. Several times people with power presumed they were morally justified to overthrow the corrupt system and individuals. Legally, they were not.
Everyone makes mistakes. It is not important as long as they are not fatal. However, the habit of repeating old mistakes has plagued the ruling elite either political or dictatorial. Albert Einstein called them insane who did the same thing over and over again and expected different results.
If his written words are to be believed – and why shouldn’t they be – the newly appointed DG Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar is a pro-democracy military man.
[quote]"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it"[/quote]
Thanks to his highly interactive job as DG Rangers of Sindh, his personality is not shrouded in mystery. He smiles, talks sense and understands the dynamics of internal threats while being well-versed with what might harm the state of Pakistan from outside.
Ideally, the task of country’s top spy is to keep a check on the bad guys and intervene whenever he deems necessary. A broad definition of bad guys can be: “those who are threatening the state of Pakistan with their actions or words.”
Certainly, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf chairman doesn’t fall in that category, and neither does Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, ex-president Asif Zardari or MQM leader Altaf Hussain, or any other democratic leader. Enemies of the government cannot be taken as enemies of the state.
The sorry episode between the outgoing DG of ISI and a news network was aggravated by the government’s perceived tilt towards one side. Then came the Azadi and Inqilab marches of Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri. Then a sensational story of the London Plan was unveiled. Javed Hashmi spilled the beans. It all seemed to be a systematic scheme under the influence of “ethical temptation” where moral responsibilities got preference over legal obligations.
Protesters camping outside the Parliament sleep near their tents
Never has any adventurist barged in with the slogan of destroying the state of Pakistan. They all came posing them best savior the country could ever have. Wasn’t it tempting to be reckoned among the national heroes in the annals of history? Nonetheless, the history remembered them differently.
“Indubitably, the offender will stand before the bar of history. There is something in human history like retribution; and it is the rule of historical retributions that its instrument be forged not by the offended, but by the offender himself,” concluded Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in his jail diary, If I am Assassinated.
The country’s premier intelligence agency – one of the best in the world – was not immune to “ethical temptations.”
The self-professed victor of Afghan Jihad Gen Hamid Gul cobbled the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) to neutralize People’s Party in 1988 general elections. His successor Gen Asad Durrani doled out millions of rupees among anti-PPP politicians to rig the 1990 elections. Much later, Gen Ehtasham Zamir lured and threatened politicians to jump onto the Gen Musharraf bandwagon.
Both Gen Gul and Gen Durrani claimed they were under orders from then army chief Gen Aslam Beg to stop the People’s Party coming to power. And Gen Zamir also admitted he was obeying his boss Gen Pervez Musharraf.
[quote]The crises are far from over [/quote]
What was common in their approaches was that they must act to protect the state of Pakistan no matter how the Constitution or laws restricted them. It leads to another important point.
It is hard to swallow that the ISI could successfully operate at such level without the blessings of the General Headquarters. It might have resorted to traditional intelligence tricks at operational level, but overthrowing or stabilizing governments was beyond its pay-check.
For instance, when Benazir Bhutto replaced Gen Gul with Gen (r) Shamsur Rehman Kallu he failed to perform because he was not enjoying the confidence of the then army chief.
The words of army chief are like holy scriptures which must be obeyed no matter how would the corps commanders or any other officer feel. Figuratively speaking, if all corps commanders are six-feet tall Gen Raheel Sharif would be the world’s tallest man.
Anti-government protesters outside the Parliament listen to a speech by Tahirul Qadri
In the situations like the one Pakistan faces these days, the script or the plot do not make any difference. If there was a scriptwriter at all, he seems to have failed to get the producer or director on board. The play may have been written, but theatrical performance did not yield the desired results owing to many factors. And one of the factors was time and again revealed in the ISPR press releases: the army chief was not interested in any type of intervention.
Primarily, it was the government’s inaction that created political stalemate. The country has suffered the economic loss of more than Rs 600 billion so far.
The PTI’s initial demand of investigating four National Assembly constituencies has converted into resignation of the prime minister until the investigation in at least 30 constituencies are completed. Meanwhile, the ghost of Model Town incident is still haunting the government. All efforts to convince Tahirul Qadri to end his sit-in have badly failed.
Led by ex-president Asif Zardari major political players joined hands to protect the Nawaz government against any misadventures. They were lucky to have an army chief who does not believe in playing politics or interfering in civilian matters.
While the chances of military intervention of any scale are remote and the PTI’s show is losing its glare, the crises are far from over. The PML-N government believes the demonstrators will leave Red Zone with some Divine intervention. The Nawaz League is praising itself for showing restraint and patience, which according to neutral analysts is blatant inaction.
The PML-N was among the political parties which believed the 2013 general elections were rigged. What stopped it after coming to power to investigate the allegations it raised itself? Why is the government making it conditional to PTI’s departure from the Red Zone?
The investigations and process of electoral reforms should have been started with or without PTI agreeing to end the protest.
The people having access to some important drawing rooms in Islamabad say they would be surprised to see PML-N completing its five-year term.
Some snap elections may be a way out if the situation aggravates any further. The government cannot perform in a state of paralysis. And the prime minister would never want contest the elections when his popularity is touching an all time low after five or four years.
People cannot stop predicting that 2015 is the election year in Pakistan. And MQM chief Atlaf Hussain has already expressed his desire of having a technocrat government to “cleanse” the system before the electorates visit the polling stations once again. n
