A silent conversation with the Quaid takes me out of the despairing mood into which I often find myself falling. I have never been pessimistic in my life. I have been particularly optimistic about the future of this great country, notwithstanding the relentless loot and plunder of its resources by the parasitic elite.
The American author John Maxwell has aptly advised leaders: “You must be big enough to admit your mistakes, smart enough to learn from them, and strong enough to correct them.” I glance over the political landscape of Pakistan, particularly after the secession of Bangladesh, and find no leader of this calibre in our history.
Earlier, we had political giants such as A.K. Fazal Haq, Husein Suhrawardy, Abdul Hameed Khan Bhashani, Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Ghous Bux Bizenjo, Sardar Attaullah Mengal, Z.A. Bhutto, G.M. Syed, Hyder Bux Jatoi, and Rasool Bux Palijo, who had the calibre, integrity, and ability to lead the people. Dear Quaid, we did not allow them to play their innings freely. The military regime of General Ayub Khan ruined our budding political and democratic culture.
Barely six years after the humiliating defeat of 1971, the security establishment upset the applecart of democracy; banned politics; charged the elected Prime Minister with a dubious murder crime; and executed him. We groped in darkness for eleven years, governed by the barrels of guns.
The country was plunged into the Western world’s war in Afghanistan, and this poor nation was afflicted by drug and Kalashnikov cultures, as well as political, religious, and sectarian militancy. US leaders claimed they had doled out 15 billion dollars to the military junta from 1982 to 1989 for war expenses. Nothing trickled down to benefit the hapless nation.
At the end of this dark period, we had a herd of 85,000 trained militants settled in our tribal agencies and 1.5 million drug addicts. The subsequent decade saw weak and powerless civilian governments brought into power by the security establishment and shown the door in case of the slightest disobedience.
The elections were managed, and the votes of the people were engineered to favour compromised politicians. One politician described the situation prevalent in the country by saying that there were two paths, one leading to power and the second to jail. Therefore, politicians preferred the first path, becoming junior partners in power instead of languishing in jails. These regimes were dismissed no sooner than any chief executive tried to govern the country.
A hazy political atmosphere now overcasts the horizon of Islamabad, far away from your grand mausoleum
Even this weak and flawed democracy was once again derailed by the adventurism of October 1999. The Prime Minister was tried for hijacking a PIA plane in the air and sentenced to life imprisonment. Through a deal brokered by a friendly country, he was allowed to go into exile along with his entire family for ten years. The new military regime and its shameless political allies ruled the roost for a decade.
The military leaders, succumbing to US pressure, plunged the country into the counterterrorism war. We witnessed an unprecedented wave of terrorist attacks and suicide bombings, resulting in the loss of over 85,000 precious lives. The Americans charged that we had cheated them out of a huge amount of 25 billion dollars in the counterterrorism war.
Dear Quaid, when the foreign patrons, President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, felt the Musharraf regime was unsustainable, they brokered a deal with the Pakistan People’s Party for general elections in 2008. The General withdrew corruption cases against PPP leaders from the Swiss courts, where adverse verdicts were imminent. This facilitated their robust return and participation in the general elections scheduled for January 2008. All this deal was undertaken to share power.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the most popular leader, was assassinated soon after an election rally in Liaquat Garden. This is the place, dear Quaid, where our first Prime Minister was also murdered in October 1951. His assassin was shot dead, while the scene of Benazir Bhutto’s murder was hosed clean to destroy all evidence. Farhatullah Babar, in his latest book on Benazir Bhutto, writes that a US national of Pakistani origin, whom he met at the behest of Benazir Bhutto, advised her to come to Pakistan after the election.
The elections were won by the PPP, and we transitioned from military autocracy to democracy. But our politicians have never been “strong enough to correct their mistakes or smart enough to learn from them”. The opposition gleefully became party to the disqualification of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in the third year of his term. The Pakistan Muslim League, under the leadership of the senior Sharif, won the general elections of 2013 and formed the federal and Punjab governments. The politicians, instigated by the establishment, continued undermining each other.
Political instability suits the supremacy of the establishment. This time, a new political party with overwhelming appeal among educated middle-class youth held the capital hostage from August to December 2014. Prime Minister Sharif publicly blamed his military generals and the deep state for conspiring against his regime.
The Panama scandal involving the senior Sharif triggered a prolonged judicial process. The apex court almost unanimously disqualified him from holding any public office. He was sentenced to imprisonment by the Accountability Court. He handed over power to Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. This gentleman has publicly stated that he was allowed to work only as an employee and not as the chief executive of the country.
Dear Quaid, amidst these circumstances, the nation went into the general elections of 2018. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf emerged victorious but with no clear majority. Crafty hands carefully engineered the electoral outcome to give the party barely enough seats to form a coalition government with political groups known to be stooges of the establishment. Prime Minister Imran Khan presided over another hybrid regime, with real power resting in the twin cities.
This military–politicians equation for hybrid governance lasted only three years. However, the hybridity of governance later turned into direct rule by non-elected forces. A hazy political atmosphere now overcasts the horizon of Islamabad, far away from your grand mausoleum.
The Prime Minister is overshadowed by the presence of the Field Marshal on every foreign tour. Dear Quaid, your successor politicians have resigned themselves to playing second fiddle in the governance of your dreamland.