The Last Hurrah
Someone should mark 4 Nov 93 as a red letter day in the country’s democratic history. Ms Benazir, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, stood her ground on two points of relentless pressure, viz (1) from her mother with respect to the arrest of her brother, Murtaza Bhutto, as soon as he stepped on Pakistan soil and (2) the return of GIK to demand support for the Presidential elections on the basis of what he thought to be an encashable IOU. One can be crass and say that she took the cue from Mian Nawaz Sharif who, in his maiden speech as Leader of the Opposition, encouraged her not to succumb to blackmail by smaller parties, independents and what have you (comprising the Establishment) but one should not take credit away from where credit is due, after all it is she who is in the PM’s hot seat with something to lose. For the record, it is the second time this year, a PM of Pakistan has stood his/her ground, “even to the peril of his/her throne”, that is an auspicious occasion for democracy in Pakistan against any scale.
Murtaza Bhutto kept the people of Pakistan guessing about his arrival the whole of Wednesday 3 Nov. Since he is charged with heinous crimes not only against the State but against a virtual plethora of individual Pakistanis who have died (and have been wounded and maimed) due to assassinations, bombs and other violent means at the hands of a terrorist organisation known as Al-Zulfikar, his entry into Pakistan should interest a lot of people, politics or otherwise. After all, he has been indicted many times by the print media (on the basis of confirmed intelligence reports) that he, having been aggrieved at the demise of his late father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had engaged in what he terms as “a genuine movement to overturn dictatorship” but that happens to be behaviour what the State calls anti-State. So we have a contradiction whether the individual is right and all that the intelligence agencies have been claiming is wrong or the individual is what he is labelled to be. However, the bigger paradox arises if the pro-Indian RAW label does not stick to Murtaza, in that case a whole generation of our intelligence hierarchy have been lying through their teeth. On the contrary, if they feel that they have been speaking the truth, then it will become a test of character of various individuals, whether they have the in-built strength and courage to stand for the truth in the face of losing their careers, Murtaza being the brother of the PM. At least, Murtaza has a redeeming feature, knowing that he faced certain arrest and maybe long incarceration, he has had the guts to stand up for his convictions. Not many people have that special courage to face what could turn out to be a fight for his life.
The Establishment’s pressure on Ms Benazir peaked on the morning of Nov 3, 1993 when she faced upto GIK and told him flatly that the PPP could not support his candidacy. For a sitting PM dependent upon disparate legislative support to stay in power, this was a virtuoso performance. GIK is a stubborn customer and he had called in all his IOUs and brought all his Establishment supported heavy artillery to bear. After all, the man had been President of Pakistan 1988-1993 as well as Economic Czar and late Gen Zia’s defacto PM 1977 to 1985. As a long standing bureaucrat, he knew the inner working of the Establishment like no one else, in fact he was Mr Establishment himself. In the face of Ms Bhutto standing her ground, instead of doing a “PIF” on PPP he has elected to withdraw from the Presidential race, a dignified manner of retreat that was much better than going down in utter disgrace by getting only a handful of votes. While GIK as a subject has much to comment upon, one can only repeat the well-known verse to his opponents, “Honour while you strike him down, the foe that comes with fearless eyes”. It was GIK’s last hurrah, no one should revel in his fall. Such is destiny that the year started with GIK, Mian Nawaz Sharif and late Asif Nawaz as the ruling “troika” that was all-powerful in Pakistan. All three have now gone, the late COAS permanently, GIK semi-permanently and the former PM temporarily.
As much as we eulogised the standing upto the Establishment on 18 April, 1993 by former PM Nawaz Sharif, we similarly cherish the last nail in the coffin of the Establishment on 04 Nov 1993 hammered in by the present PM, Ms Benazir Bhutto. Suddenly, except for a few irritants here and there, the stage is cleared for the grand finale, the election for the Presidency, without prompting by the Establishment. The question is, will both our political leaders display the same courage that we are now witness to in the choosing of a President, by consensus or compromise? The President is a man for all Pakistanis, that should be the measure of his choosing.
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