Games People Play
Without a clear majority in the 1988 NA elections but with 90 seats plus, Ms Benazir anxiously (and successfully) sought the Army’s nod in making the Federal Government. Less than two years later, she was ill-advised in trying to retire the then Chairman JSCS, Admiral Sirohey, and kick the then COAS, Gen Aslam Beg, upstairs into this largely ceremonial post. Technically Chairman JCSC is senior in rank to the COAS but toothless in the measure of actual power. Even with her own nominee as the DG ISI, Lt Gen (Retd) S.R. Kallue, a very competent professional soldier, she was caught by complete surprise by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in an operation for her removal as PM overseen by the then DGMI, Maj Gen Asad Durrani, in collaboration with an Election Cell within the Presidency comprising luminaries such as Roedad Khan and Ijlal Haider Zaidi. One messes with the internal working of the military hierarchy in a third world Muslim country at one’s peril. There are some games one does not play.
Though late Gen Asif Nawaz, the then COAS, was acutely sensitive to a perceived ally of Mian Nawaz Sharif, former DG ISI Lt Gen Hameed Gul, the internal dissension within the PML hierarchy at the Army’s urban focus of Operation Clean-Up on a prime PML ally, the MQM, contributed much more to his antipathy of the PML (N). Whether with the knowledge of the late COAS or otherwise, a motley group comprising almost the same people who destabilized Ms Bhutto in the first term along with some of his loyalists got together with PPP elements to unsettle Mian Nawaz Sharif. However, the first Long March in November 1992 was an unmitigated disaster, the seekers of change realizing that as long as the COAS and the President stood firm, the existing political structure could not be brought down. The untimely demise of Gen Asif Nawaz in January 1993 upset the schedule of “the agenda” as it came to be called within a particular tight inner circle. Without the sobering effect of late COAS, some of the people within that nest became Prima Donnas, each with his own naked ambition. The group shifted its emphasis to creating dissension between the GIK and the PM. Kamran Khan has categorically stated that Lt Gen Asad Durrani (along with Roedad Khan and Ijlal Haider Zaidi) were actively engaged in the downing of Mian Nawaz Sharif. On the basis of incriminating tapes showing his political manipulations Asad Durrani was summarily retired from the Army. That nobody has volunteered to rebut or deny the facts speaks volumes for the veracity of Kamran Khan’s assertions. Despite this career setback and even as a retired general, the resilient Asad Durrani, with the active connivance of a handful of anti-Nawaz Sharif elements in and out of uniform actively aided and abetted Ms Bhutto’s proposed Second Long March in July, 1993, a non-event that accomplished its purpose by bluff as Mian Nawaz Sharif resigned in the face of total government paralysis. Asad Durrani (and his civilian counterpart in the Establishment) have now participated in the demise of two successive political governments, though supporting opposing parties. They were on the winning side each time, what they are upto now is anyone’s guess!
The elections in 1993 were generally perceived to be fair, but there have been persistent reports about the overturning of some clear-cut majorities in a dozen or so key constituencies. One of the most blatant was that of many times decorated war-hero Raja Nadir Pervaiz who went to sleep late at night comfortably 2,500 votes ahead and woke up in the morning to find he had lost by less than a 100 votes. Interestingly enough most of the shenanigans seem to have taken place in urban-rural constituencies with rural areas going so overwhelmingly anti-PML so as to be cause of well-placed suspicions. While neither the PPP nor PML got the majority of seats, the effort to keep MQM totally divorced from a national role was certainly part of a greater gameplan that succeeded far beyond its original objective of keeping the MQM away from 5 of its 15 confirmed NA seats. The absence of the 15 MQM NA seats tilted the balance of power decisively to the PPP, Ms Benazir was easily in position to make the Federal Government. On the crest of a fluid political momentum, she was subsequently also able to get the coveted post of the President for PPP’s Farooq Leghari. While in political terms, she is mistress of all that she can survey in Pakistan, in actual fact she will continue to feel insecure in the face of a strong, unbending and professional COAS. Since old habits die hard, one hopes that PPP would not now turn its attention to the final arbiter of the nation’s destiny, the control of the Pakistan Army through an “amenable” COAS. The only way seems to be by upgrading Gen Waheed to Chairman JCSC. As a stalwart has boasted, it is only the matter of a simple Gazette Notification.
Asad Durrani was given the Ambassador-ship to Bonn as a reward for his endeavours but it seems to be a temporary assignment. Before leaving for his diplomatic post, Lt Gen (Retd) Asad Durrani went around the country renewing and reviewing his old intelligence contacts. Why should Durrani try to organise a network unless he has a bigger mandate? One rumour states that he is slated to come back to a revived post of National Security Advisor (NSA) in a National Security Council coordinating all the intelligence agencies of the country. Another rumour puts the retired CGS, Lt Gen Farrukh Khan, in line to be the Secretary General Defence when Salim Jilani retires. Both Durrani’s return to Pakistan or Farrukh’s induction in any governmental capacity sensitive to the Army may cause controversy.
After the demise of Gen Asif Nawaz, real power was rumoured to have remained in the hands of the key triumvirate within the Army composed of the loyalists of the late COAS, the then CGS, Lt Gen Farrukh Khan, Commander 5 Corps, Lt Gen Nasir Akhtar and the DG ISI, Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi. As a dyed-in-the-wool professional, the new COAS, General Waheed, concerned himself primarily with professional matters weaning the both of the officer corps away from politics, preferring to let the triumvirate continue dealing with such day to day as concerned political connotations unless absolutely necessary for his presence. Controlling the inflow of hard information, the deliberate “tilt” to PPP did not happen simply because the triumvirate, all of them otherwise competent professionals, liked Ms Benazir but more because of their antipathy to Mian Nawaz Sharif. However, an inaccurate impression was left in the minds of the general public about the political alignment of the Army’s rank and file. The Army has been successfully carrying out its own metamorphosis under Gen Waheed to sheer professionalism. While the April 1993 Promotion Board was quite good, only one or two getting past the post on their “village connection”, one cannot remember a more impartial event than the 1994 Promotion Board, one based only on outstanding merit. Not one single individual at the upper levels has been promoted to the next rank on any other count but his own performance. Postings to key appointments have been of people who not only merit such posts but are politically neutral. No pro-PML (N) or PPP element has surfaced but then again no blatantly anti-PML (N) or anti-PPP person has either.
With Lt Gen Farrukh Khan retired and Lt Gen Nasir Akhtar now in the staff appointment of QMG at GHQ, the remaining holdout of the triumvirate is Lt Gen Javed Ashraf Qazi as DG ISI. In a thankless job that arouses controversy by its very nature, Qazi needs to come back to a mainstream professional job in the Army to arrest an increasing reputation for political inclinations since this does not conform to the new image of a professional senior officer corps. Face with increasing corruption throughout the body politic, can Qazi deliver on the facts of accountability? Since the post of DG ISI necessitates political leanings some of the adverse reaction is hardly Qazi’s fault but the Army would do well to replace him with another professional soldier in the ISI with confirmed political neutrality as well as known competence in intelligence affairs. The Afghan morass has not contributed to his reputation either. Somebody like Lt Gen Khalid Latif Moghal world neatly fit such a role, however there are others who are also competent and politically neutral enough to do the job.
Idealism and politics rarely go together. Ch Nisar Ali is one of the outstanding young politicians of our times but his sense of preserving democracy does go off on a tangent at times. Ch Nisar initiated the dialogue with PPP’s Iftikhar Gilani on the (now forgotten) Eighth Amendment, a fact used ruthlessly by the PPP to show up Nawaz Sharif’s “betrayal” of GIK, even though it meant losing Gilani in the process. Since politics is war by another name, this was a fair political gambit by PPP. While he is theoretically right about the Army remaining in its Constitutional role, political pragmatism dictates that he should be more circumspect. While the PPP never seems to learn lessons it has got the hard way, its ability as a major player in political gamesmanship remains. Having heard Ch Nisar sound off in the NA eloquently about accountability in the Army recently, it is an even bet that other forces may well approach him in a bid to “save” the “democratic system”. The danger lies that those who seem to “cooperate” with him may do so in a deadly dual purpose, if the “democratic front” possibility does not succeed he may be again shown up as an example of the “anti-Army” bias of PML (N), a canard that cost Mian Nawaz Sharif his government and the subsequent 1993 General elections.
Ch Nisar comes from an illustrious military background and he should recognise that the Army has made a very deliberate move towards professionalism. As merit takes dominance over other factors the Army will by itself become apolitical. However, in the interim if the political parties do not learn their lessons to “Leave The Army Alone”, “THE NATION, May 1988, people like Asad Durrani (and others in his mould) will continue to make and unmake governments in drawing rooms. Eventually a day may come when being the government fronting for the people in real power may not be palatable either to the taste of PPP or PML (N). The two major players in our emerging democracy must not make any move that will stifle the process, above all they must shun the temptations of adventurism. Those who operate behind the scenes use Chanakhya’s standards, the enemy of an enemy is a friend. That can never be the basis of sincerity in any relationship, least of all in the factors necessary for sustaining democracy.
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