Entering the new millennium
The Year 1999 is the last of the 20th century, at the end we will be entering the new millennium. While the world as a whole has made tremendous progress, we have to search within our own soul to determine whether the leaders of this country have justified our existence as a nation to the people and communities that live within its parameters. Unfortunately we have seen quality eroded in every aspect of our lives, it’s about time we seriously conducted an indepth analysis to adopt some means of reversing this debilitating trend.
The major erosion is one of character. 1971 should have been a watershed for any nation, a “Karbala” for us to rebound from, a low-water mark from which to derive lessons and to implement the conclusions derived from the lessons learnt. Whereas in 1971 there was a clear divide between West and East Pakistan, today except for the tribes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh is a united country. Not so among the races being the areas comprising of former West Pakistan, they are riven by suspicion and anger at each other. Instead of uniting after a catastrophe, we are now divided on ethnic and sectarian lines. Friendly disagreement would have been bad enough but increasingly various factions are turned to violence, brutal intolerance is the hallmark of the present situation.
Most disagreement is because of the diminishing economic cake. As the population expands there has been also a gradual shifting from the rural to the urban areas. There is severe pressure on our available national resources. Even then we seek jobs in the manufacturing sector at a high starting price instead of reforming the services sector. The decrease of employment opportunities has caused friction amongst the various communities because the resultant economic hardship has led to perceived discrimination. This in turn has resulted in severe nepotism of the worst kind, in the process merit has been made a disqualifier instead of being the touchstone of success. The overall result has been a deterioration in the quality of our performance in each and every discipline of life. Moreover because nepotism breeds on itself, the net effect has been a severe erosion of merit-based society. Nepotism is the twin soul-mate of corruption, we face this evil everyday of our lives in each and every field. This cancer is such that honesty has become rarest on commodities and instead of hiding ill-acquired wealth we consider the display of it fashionable. On the other hand people who eke out the existence of meagre pay and allowance are viewed with contempt, not fit to be involved in the farcical society of the so-called elite in existence in the country.
For this state of affairs we have only to blame our leadership, whether political, military or bureaucratic. Whereas it is fashionable to say that Pakistan has lived almost 25 years under Martial Laws, the fact remains that never at any time did the bureaucracy leave the controls over financial sectors, the area that really matters in governance. The same thing happened when politicians took over control in our imperfect democracy. The bureaucracy has always been involved in day to day governance, meticulously teaching the rulers, whether military or political, how to become partners in crime, manipulating rules and regulations at will for personal benefits.
The potential of every sector of life in Pakistan has been decapitated beyond recognition, we are left with only the Armed Forces as the one remaining bastion of integrity that has for the most part survived erosion into mediocrity. However, even that remaining symbol of credibility is now being subjected to well-designed motivated extraneous pressures. Any army is oriented not only to protect its mission requirements but also to protect itself from being subverted by the enemy. However, it is always ill-equipped to defend itself against the propaganda unleashed in its own national media (print or electronic) as opposed to its ability in countering a quantum of forces drawn against it in the battle field. Moreover, it does not have the capacity to handle surreptitious designs of ill-motivated people within the country hell-bent on destroying its inherent integrity. The recent spate of defamatory articles about senior retired officers is being initiated for one reason only, to disparage the credibility of the Armed Forces and to bring their leadership into disrepute. Gen Jehangir Karamat, former Acting Chairman JCSC and COAS and Lt Gen Ali Kuli Khan, CGS were highly maintained before being relieved, why have they suddenly become persona non grata? And who will be interested in defaming their character and ability? In Pakistan we never worship the setting sun.
The Army’s rule is well-defined in time of war, when it comes in aid of civil power during peace it does so (or should do so) in short surgical manner. The Army must never get involved in the business of running civilian institutions. First of all they are not professionally equipped to do so, in any case they lack the required technical expertise. Their total involvement should be to carry out accountability of the professionals carrying out their own professional task. The best employment modus operandi is seen in Sindh where Military Courts are indirectly policing the Province by meting out justice in a short and swift method. Instead of trying to induct 35,000 people into WAPDA, maybe a thousand Military Courts or so should have been established in support of WAPDA throughout the country to investigate the cases of electricity stealing, bribes, pilferage of stores etc. These Military Courts would ensure that not only WAPDA men do their jobs properly but the element of corruption that influence with their performance would have been eradicated. Where the Army has been used successfully in long-term institutions are the Anti-Narcotics Force which was set up as a very successful combating unit by then Maj Gen (now Lt Gen) Salahuddin Tirmizi. While the NLC idea should have been a short-term proposition, the fact remains it is a continuing success story.
The biggest problem being faced by the country is revenue shortages and loan default. This is having a crippling effect on the economy. All development work has come to a halt, revenue is short in even meeting salary commitments. As a former Prime Minister and other political leaders have suggested, the Army can be used for investigating and carrying out trial of defaulters whether it be tax default or loan default. In fact that is the best role for the Army. Even in this the Army should not get involved directly with the defaulters but should first try bureaucrats and financial executives because of whom the default has taken place. The Military Courts should only handle cases directly which are of very influential people who manipulate and influence their way out of trouble. In this manner the Army would ensure that those people whose job is in the Revenue Department to levy and collect taxes as well as those senior executives in the Banks who have dished out loans lavishly without proper collateral and who must collect those loans do their work in a professional manner rather than in the biased corrupt way they do so now.
1999 is the year that civil government must judiciously use the one remaining institution left to it for good performance of the country. There is after all the need to guard one’s borders, we cannot undercut that capability. In case civilian government fails then we should be left with no alternative but that the Army should step in to save the country from destruction and disintegration. This may be a very extreme view of the situation, unfortunately it is the only correct perception of the state of the country as it enters the last year before the new millennium.
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