Divided We Stand
Events over the past week or so are witness to why the uniform is so important to the President, the ruling PML is a “democratic” house of cards held together by the authority of Pervez Musharraf as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Pakistan Army. While not less than 70% of the PML (and allied) parliamentarians have individual political clout in their own constituencies and thus legitimacy on their own steam, almost 30% would never have made it into the Assembles had it not been for those in charge of political manipulations in the ISI and MI, directly under the direction of the COAS. An alliance was cobbled together in 2002 to give legitimacy to our democratic pretensions, if the system has survived until now it is only because the ISI and MI remain Swords of Damocles, without discounting of course the personality of the President as COAS. Seeing the PML edifice in danger, Musharraf called all the faction heads to an enlarged meeting of the PML’s heads on Monday May 16, 2005, ostensibly to discuss the present economic and geo-political situation, mainly to give the “loyal” Parliamentarians a pep talk and paper over the chinks and cracks appearing in the body armour of Pakistan’s ruling party.
To start with, dispute the bonhomie of togetherness, why was former PM Zafarullah Khan Jamali mad at the PML hierarchy? “Jabal” as he was nicknamed in college, has not changed much in almost 50 years. He remains sincere and humble, courteous and respectful, a friend of a friend. The Jamalis are political survivors in Baloch society, at the fag end of the tribal hierarchy led by the Marris, Mengals, Bugtis, etc. An affable human being who is slow to burn, an angry Zafarullah can be pretty stubborn unless positive steps are taken to stroke his ego and self-respect. The visit of brothers three Ch. Shujaat, Ch. Fazal Elahi and Ch. Wajahat to his house in Islamabad on Monday before meeting the President was a step in that direction. There is reason for Humayun Akhtar being an angry young man, if Pervez Musharraf had not pulled Shaukat Aziz out of the proverbial hat and the rug from under Humayun’s feet at five minutes to midnight he would have been PM. If Humayun has ambitions, he is also capable, it is difficult to mollify someone who has been denied what he was given to understand was his due, notwithstanding the fact that in office the albatross of his father, late Gen Akhtar Abdur Rahman, late Zia’s DG ISI and (later) Chairman JCSC, would hamper his output.
The simmering matter between the Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Arbab Rahim and PML Secretary General Imtiaz Shaikh persists, preferably both should vacate their posts and allow governance back into the Province, at the moment the Federal Government might as well declare Sindh a “disaster area”. The Functional PML under Pir Pagaro, Sindh’s answer to Akbar Bugti, has again left the ruling PML, and is “functioning” with a handful of legislators. Stalwarts like Salim Saifullah have been sidelined in the NWFP, divorced first from PML’s central affairs and now even in the Province. Only in the Punjab things are going right for PML with Ch Pervez Elahi creating waves a la Shahbaz Sharif by implementing a number of highly visible socio-economic projects, in particular roads, overheads and underpasses. Punjab’s PML legislators are notorious turncoats, their real character is on display whenever a political crisis of some magnitude comes about, they usually vote with their feet for the highest bidder. In Balochistan, Nawab Akbar Bugti has been politically (and militarily) isolated, feeling the heat he is trying his best to create a “Baloch” platform, that is probably the only exit strategy from the morass that he has got himself into. Whether the Baloch leaders will bail Bugti out is another matter. Have their memories about 1973 been erased when he was instrumental in summarily ousting a Baloch Provincial Government led by Governor Bizenjo and CM Ataullah Shah Mengal, worse he was the Governor appointed by then PM late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to orchestrate the Army’s move to crush the “rebellion” among the Marri and Mengal tribes? The shedding of Marri and Mengal blood by proxy notwithstanding, the crocodile tears for “Baloch” honour is rather hypocritical, to say the least. The one thing that holds out hope for the PML is that a technocrat like Mushahid was selected by Musharraf to be the Secretary General, his technocrat predecessor former Finance (and later Foreign) Minister Senator Sartaj had done an excellent job for Mian Nawaz Sharif’s versions of PML.
President Musharraf’s own technocracy would have been best served by a political PM to sustain and strengthen the democratic facade. Technocrat PM Shaukat Aziz has done a fairly good job in vowing foreign governments, world institutions and investors in the climate contrived by Musharraf for Pakistan after 9/11, as a domestic political entity he is a cypher. Musharraf’s mission impossible for Shaukat was to shore up Pakistan (and his) international image, we are now hiring consultants without any international experience or exposure to register Pakistan’s soft image. Shaukat has done an excellent job on the domestic front but who is going to carry the political bag, an inaudible Ch Shujaat?
Musharraf’s main problem as a uniformed person was to have a political whip master to carry domestic issues along. So why is PML hovering on the verge of self-destruction? Back to my old argument before Shaukat Aziz became PM, nobody doubts his corporate credentials, in office he has more than proved it, but is good governance “trickling down”? Is he an asset to the President and the country by being a political nonentity without the commensurate clout within the country? Both President Musharraf and PM Shaukat Aziz individually have amazing luck, that this luck seems to have rubbed off on the country’s economic fortunes has been to the benefit of the country. Can sovereign countries depend on the luck of their leaders alone or should we rather hedge our bets? The dilemma is that Shaukat has performed his mission as a technocrat, having made him PM would it be fair to get rid of him? Or should we give due recognition to the Presidential system already in place by default in all but name to accommodate Shaukat? If I were the President I would nominate Shaukat Aziz to have a go at succeeding Kofi Annan as Secretary General of the UN, with his outstanding PR both in the East and West, I don’t see how Shaukat can fail to get elected, this time without having “ghost” voters vote for him, certainly in Thar if not in Attock.
The bottom line is that either the President has a political whip as PM or if he is to practice his politics out in the open he has to shed his uniform. Given that doffing the uniform idea is a non-starter, the next best thing would be to have someone in the PM’s Chair running party politics on a full-time basis. Or else give the PM’s post to a third party, a coalition partner! In theory separating the PM’s post from that of the party leader is excellent, in Pakistan, as in many third world countries, this can never work. The client-patron relationship vital to governance can only be exercised if one has the authority to distribute political plums. That is fundamental to instilling of unity in the PML ranks, the Party President has to have at first hand governmental clout of dishing out favours. The PML resembles Humpty Dumpty on the wall, all the king’s ISI and all the king’s MI will not be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again if it should fall.
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