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Farewell to Camelot

With her first speech to the nation as Prime Minister, Ms Benazir struck a combative discordant note, not in keeping with the realities of the split mandate given by the electorate, in the euphoria of her ascent to power, all was quickly forgotten. With a confidence belying her inexperience in the corridors of administration, the new Prime Minister moved quickly to establish her authority. In the hope that manna from Heaven was to be distributed, hundreds and thousands of the party faithfuls trekked into Islamabad, many were accommodated, many more were disappointed, most took it well, some took it ill. Youth and loyalty to the Party were the hallmarks for selection, symbolized by Ms Benazir herself, some wags even started calling her Cabinet the Under-19 team. Very few of her father’s original stalwarts made it into the corridors of power, some had been defeated in the elections, most were found sinecures as Advisors, expected to be seen, not heard (or heard of). As is usual with youthful exuberance, the air was pregnant with excitement, Camelot had come to Islamabad, the wide world beckoned in front of PPP, wide-ranging reformation was the idealistic cry of the hour.

Ms Benazir’s reign can be divided into two periods, each lasting 300 days or so. In the first period, Ms Benazir tried to come to grips with the various national problems, she turned her attention to the economy on a priority basis, her scorecard reflects B Plus for effort, B for actual performance, not bad given the circumstances. Her economic handlers operated a tight fiscal policy, kept strict monetary control, inflation was kept generally within respectable limits. Her newly incepted Board of Investment (BOI) spurred investment, foreign entrepreneurs still remained somewhat shy with domestic credit not really available, sanctions may have outstripped reality but no matter, the willingness to encourage private investment was refreshing, reflected in the reversal of the cornerstone of PPP philosophy, nationalisation, to that of privatisation. The business community was by and large satisfied with her rhetoric, liberal policies reinforced her promises positively. Till very late in her incumbency, business persevered with the love-fest vis-a-vis the Federal Government.

Ms Benazir’s failure to reconcile with the split mandate given by the electorate, (33% of the vote hardly represents a landslide), now began to create a backlash of sorts, that a disparate majority did not vote for PPP was neither recognized as a danger signal by her and her close confidantes or efforts made to allay their fears. On the other hand, her stance increasingly became one of defiance, conveying that the mandate given to her was absolute, despite democratic pretensions and rhetoric which swayed masses, she became increasingly an autocratic ruler, countenancing no backchat from even her closest political colleagues and aides. Instead of consolidating her rule over a period of time, she borrowed chapter and verse from her late father’s penchant for political brinkmanship, living in a world of permanent crisis, the revenge motive showed in spite of a spate of denials. With some of her appointed Advisors hell-bent in proceeding along the same route, a debilitating confrontation with Punjab was started, with Balochistan to a lesser extent.

Politics is the art of compromise, even her late father showed the advantages of the conciliatory approach to good effect in the unanimous adoption of the 1973 Constitution. After spending a decade out in the cold, bereft of luxuries or wealth, her Cabinet Members and most of her party members in the Administration decided carte blanche to go into “business” for themselves. Some known businessmen touts of the previous regimes latched onto various Ministers, at least three well-known ones have been “Mentioned in Despatches” in the supposed Exit Control List (ECL). Brokers sell their services to anybody, these pimps were no different, they had no loyalty to the PPP (or any other political party), frustrating even the loyal rank and file who correctly saw them as parasites. Some of the better known ones have been into custody, one does not see the PPP die-hard coming out in the streets to protest their incarceration and thus save their hides.

Ms. Benazir seems to have had a memory lapse in acknowledging that it was the steadfastness of the Armed Forces that brought her to power in the first place, the events of Aug 17, 1988 were unusual in the respect that the normal “Third World” route was not followed by the uniformed ones, who opted instead for democracy, the rest is constitutional history. Tentative moves were made by both the sides to ensure a workable arrangement but the appointment of a retired army general, Lt Gen (Retd) S R Kallue as ISI Chief in a post normally tenable by a serving officer, was resented by the Defence Services. Lt Gen Kallue had retired with an excellent reputation, in his ISI incumbency as a political appointee he became estranged from the Army, thereby limiting his effectiveness. One also feels that a fine, outstanding person like Maj. Gen (Retd) Imtiaz Ali, formerly Military Secretary to late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he was PM, should have refrained from becoming the Advisor to the PM on Defence, in the circumstances it gave the wrong signals and tarnished his once-fair reputation in the Armed Forces. People like him and Maj Gen (Retd) Nasirullah Khan Babar had so much to give to this country, it has been wasted on a misplaced sense of loyalty. The Sirohey affair was thoroughly ill-conceived, it was the second major indicator to the Armed Forces that while they may have reconciled to civilian authority, the political government wanted to cut them down to size, not for any altruistic democratic motive but to instal their own favourites in positions of influence. Having emasculated the ISI by the removal of an extremely competent professional, Lt Gen Hameed Gul, to the great glee and joy of the Indians, the PPP found itself stymied by the rest of the military hierarchy which saw an alarming perception of softness in their PM vis-a-vis the stance against India, sitting next to Rajiv Gandhi at a Press Conference in Islamabad in July 1989, she gave a sick smile while he brushed aside the Kashmir problem in emphatic terms. God alone knows if it is true that some elements in the PPP asked the Indians to open up a front to divert the Pakistan Army’s attention away from the internal problem. The strange case of proposing an extension for one of the retiring Corps Commanders, Lt Gen (Retd) Alam Jan Mahsud, was probably the final straw, smacking of a deliberate attempt to cause dissension in the Army, not taking into account the fact that the country is beset by external and internal problems of severe magnitude.

One of Ms Benazir’s first reactions has been to blame the Army for her removal particularly the Military Intelligence. If her allegations are correct, it is really bad news for her and her followers, who should prepare for another long spell in the political wilderness, the Army will then certainly ensure that she stays out of power past many Oct-24s. She has inadvertently given a signal to her partymen to jump the ship for the coming elections, how many of the faithful will buck the Army? The Party unfaithfuls are going to desert in droves, even now feelers are being sent out to all concerned. Enough has been said about the efficacy of Article 245 of the Constitution and its application in Sindh, perhaps the adoption of that route was infinitely better than being cast out in the cold. The reluctance of the PPP to come to grips with the problems in Sindh was self-destructive, harbouring of criminals usually is.

Some have celebrated the downfall of Ms Benazir in their usual, inimitable manner, the dismissal of the Prime Minister of Pakistan is not a happy occasion, it could still lead to a lasting disaster for the future of democracy in Pakistan. Without entering into any debate or controversy over the manner of her ouster, one does feel that while acting out of the supreme national interest, an immediate reference by the President to the Supreme Court subsequent to his action would have had a salutary effect, one supposes that the same effect would be served by the PPP’s appeal to the Supreme Court, the early disposal of which should clear any ambiguity. Given the powers of incumbency, tales of horse trading and the anticipated detention of MQM MNAs, Ms Benazir would have survived any “no confidence” motion but the shenanigans would have violated all democratic norms, as they did last October.

Ms Benazir’s arrival was taken as a fresh wind into the body politics of Pakistan. Charismatic, intelligent and articulate, she brought with her into the PM’s office the goodwill of even those who were nominally opposed to her. No one in Pakistan can claim to have the same international recognition and credibility that she had, only if blessed with an extraordinary combination of circumstances will someone ever have the same stature in the future. Her Oxford speech did not interfere with her commendable ability to switch to rabid rabble rousing, a definite political asset. Blessed with undeniable beauty, she showed off her charms to perfection. One daresays that she commands wider adulation among the die-hard PPP faithful than her late father, he was no slouch himself. She was a political handler’s dream but one doubts that she let anyone direct her on the political stage. Her undoing (during the second period of 300 days) started with last October’s “no confidence” motion, thereafter she became a hostage of sorts of her own party parliamentarians on the one side and lurid tales of corruption on the other. Having obtained the resignations of her entire cabinet (which remained in force for 10 months till her dismissal), she could not even get rid of Ehsanul Haq Peracha, her Finance Minister, after he was indicted by a High Court Judge on charges associated with nepotism and corruption.

The second portion of her rule upto the day of dismissal was thus a period of suspense, of daily tribulations and the self-creation of unseen enemies. The business of government came to a standstill, the hangers-on of Government went into business with a vengeance. She had taken on the Provinces run by the Opposition since Day ONE of her rule, the confrontation in the same vein through the entire period of her incumbency. From time to time, some emissaries exchanged pleasantries with the Government of Punjab, most notably and lastly Happy Minwalla with Nawaz Sharif over lunch on August 6, 1990. At the same time the rest of the Gang on either side traded insults and accusations without check, a mindless, senseless quarrel without any real purpose that inhibited their respective capacities to govern, reaching a stage where the Great Silent Majority had got to declaring “a pox on both your houses”.

No one doubts that Ms Benazir inherited from her late father the natural arrogance of the Wadera (Sindhi landlord), the utter disdain for inferior poor human beings, either in station or intellect, an anachronism for someone professing so much concern for the poor. Ms Benazir could cut people dead with icy stares or just plain ignore them (as Ayaz Amir has described in his excellent piece in “DAWN” about a dinner hosted for her by him at his house when he proceeded to become a piece of the furniture), the whiplash of her temper with her Cabinet colleagues and aides has been going the rounds of the Gossip Bazar. As all leaders are apt to do, she has a larger than life self-image of herself, while to an extent it may be justified, it makes no sense to flaunt it, common sense suggested that she should cool it. Her intelligence has been compromised by naivete, (either real or more dangerously, contrived), she lacked her late father’s peasant shrewdness, a necessity for survival in political life. Her sensitivity, so crucial in the political field, is intermittent and therefore suspect. Her arrogance with her peers alienated too many of them, it was most unnecessary, they would have eventually faded into oblivion even as they ran political interference to protect her exposed flanks, some she made into outright foes.

Everything else may be important constitutionally, the real reason for Ms Benazir’s downfall is the hatred and disgust of the intelligentsia and masses because of the widely circulated rumours about corruption and the supposed machinations of her husband, Asif Zardari. In denying any wrongdoing by her husband, Ms Benazir severely damages her credibility, does she think everyone is so gullible, or as she trying to carry by bluff an admiring western audience, particularly those who stamp down on corruption in their own country but are turning a blued eye here in the name of democracy? The Zardaris may not have been in rags but they were not that fabulously rich when Asif Zardari married Ms Benazir. His father, Hakim Ali Zardari, was earlier rumoured to have been unofficially blacklisted by banks for defaulting on repayment of advances. Asif Zardari quickly emerged as a political and financial force to be reckoned with, instead of going the accepted route of bribery and corruption, he first moved his own friends and confidantes into senior posts in the nation’s financial institutions on the premise that those who control the purse strings of the nation control the nation. In Sindh he became the power that called all the shots, making the Chief Minister totally ineffective. The subject matter may be subjudice, therefore, one withholds comment but in the face of the many many loans made without any collateral it will be a miracle if they cannot find anything to bring charges against the Zardaris, nobody could be that clever, in any case some of his friends who are in custody are falling over themselves to lay everything bare. Asif Zardari may have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth or he may have been cleverly exploiting his wife’s political authority while keeping her in the dark, the rumours about his activities have effectively ruined his wife’s career for the time being. That she refused to bring him into line is a major part of her present (and future) problems. Some of us have been rendered dumb by the PPP Central Executive Committee meeting on August 10 that declared him a “honourable businessman”, can the Party be blind to the fact that he is the yoke that brought a political meteor down, the perception of guilt is too strong to wipe out by emphatic denials and flamboyant rhetoric about political victimisation, Mr. Asif Zardari and his non-political friends have successfully pulverized the potential that his wife represented for Pakistan. Jatoi, Khar, Jam Sadiq, Rafi Raza, Mir Afzal, etc, (all uncles of Ms Benazir during her late father’s reign), represent “The Uncles Strike Back” in the manner of the movie “The Empire Strikes Back”, Asif Zardari coming across as Darth Vader instead of Hans Solo in the public mind, the Dark Knight profitably living off someone else’s visions and dreams. As long as definite association with widespread corruption is not wiped off the minds of the masses, Ms Benazir is rendered unelectable. She will always command a reasonable bloc of votes in the National Assembly, but not a majority, at least for the present time. Her husband’s shenanigans have cost her the crucial swing vote of the masses that mattered, this is not a prediction but a statement of fact.

In the Frontier Province, PPP Superstar Aftab Sherpao, afforded the winning edge that warded off defeat at the Federal level by electoral means. Emulating Sherpao’s par excellence performance, the PPP did extremely well where the rank and file were dedicated, honest and sincere. The PPP will remain a force to contend with, you cannot take the Sherpaos of this world and cast them into the political wilderness, they have a recurring aptitude of bouncing back. Unless the party hierarchy convince their Princess that given all other aberrations, her husband’s role is the one issue that became the cause of real concern for the whole nation, the national role of PPP is consigned to oblivion for the immediate future, the consequences of the Zardari money-rush. Public memory being notoriously short, in five years all this may well be forgotten. Whatever the courts may eventually rule, in the minds of many of even those who may have rooted for her, Ms Benazir’s departure back into the political cold had become a dire national necessity. Exit in this fashion is never comfortable, for those who believed that she could deliver it has been a frustrating experience.

A period of rethinking may even be good for her, she may find it self-cleansing! In the meantime, we will contemplate life without Ms Benazir.

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