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| Pak faces major political crisis | | Musharraf uses 'Kashmir card' to save his regime | |
B L KAK
NEW DELHI: Pakistan President, Gen. Parvez Musharraf, currently facing a set of serious challenges within his own country, has chosen to divert the Pakistanis' attention to the decades old bone of contention between his country and India. It is Kashmir, to be precise. Gen. Musharraf and his men within and outside the Pakistan ruling establishment seem to have found the 'Kashmir card' relevant and effective while dealing with their political adversaries.
Since things on Pakistan's politcal scene are hotting up, the use of 'Kashmir card' may not eventually serve the political requirements of Gen. Musharraf and his men. Taking the situation, as it is, Pakistan is on the brink of a major political crisis. However, what seems to be somewhat pro-Musharraf is that his position is assured by his command of the Pakistan Army. Therefore, his regime is not under immediate threat. But the illusion of parliamentary government under military direction, built over the last several years, could unravel if the weak civilian wing of Gen. Musharraf's administration is further weakened. Recent developments are leading to the questioning of the military's professions that it is the stabiliser of Pakistan's polity.
Gen. Musharraf could persuade MQM to continue supporting his handpicked Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, and the Sindh government cobbled together through the machinations of the security services. But Pakistan's current political crisis runs deeper than the challenge of an uneasy coalition partner that controls the country's financial capital and major port city, Karachi. Gen. Musharraf and the Pakistan Army have consistently justified their toppling of an elected government in 1999 on grounds of the alleged failure of Pakistan's civilian leadership.
But with rampant corruption scandals and constant intrigue sapping the strength of the Musharraf-Aziz regime, the Army's claim of cleaning up the stables and laying the foundations of "true democracy" are beginning to ring hollow. Parvez Musharraf is not the first Pakistani general to believe that the Army has the rightful authority to run Pakistan, including management of any pretensions to democracy. If there is a common thread running through Pakistan's chequered history, it is the Army's perception of itself as the country's only viable institution and its deep-rooted suspicion of politics and political processes.
Gen. Musharraf benefited initially from the short memory of the public, which had forgotten the military interventions of the past but remembered the chaos of civilian rule in the decade preceding Gen. Musharraf's takeover. But now an increasing number of Pakistanis is beginning to wonder if a handful of coup-making generals can truly serve Pakistan's national interest. A group of retired generals (including two former ISI chiefs), sitting and former parliamentarians and academics wrote a letter to Musharraf recently that sought the Army's disengagement from political power and called for the separation between the offices of President and Army Chief.
The supposedly "clean" politicians brought in since 1999 to replace the onesGen. Musharraf says will "never" be allowed to return have proven no better than their predecessors. To cite one example, several members of Parliament including ministers have been proven to have lied while filing their assets declaration forms. Perhaps the time has come to abandon the Army's efforts to breed a new civilian leadership and to allow political processes to advance gradually and even painfully. As the signatories to the recent letter to Musharraf pointed out, Pakistan could move forward if the Army withdraws from politics, the 2007 elections are held under neutral caretaker governments at Islamabad as well as in the provinces and all the major political parties learn from their past mistakes.
If that does not happen, Pakistan will only move from crisis to crisis and none of the country's fundamental issues will get resolved. Institutional governance will come to Pakistan only when one institution--that is, the Army-- refuses to insist on being the final political arbiter. |
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