ISLAMABAD: Back in 2006, Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif signed a 36-clause Charter of Democracy. The word ‘military’ appeared for a total of 19 times and the very first paragraph made it clear that the charter’s principal target is “the military’s subordination of all state institutions”. Clause 22 states: “No party shall solicit the support of military to come into power or to dislodge a democratic government.” On 25 March 2015, PM Nawaz Sharif was at PAF Base Faisal, Southern Air Command Headquarters. PM Nawaz Sharif, in the presence of Lieutenant-General Naveed Mukhtar, HI(M), Commander V Corps, and Major-General Bilal Akbar, DG Pakistan Rangers (Sindh), approved “the second phase of the Karachi Operation.” Two observations: First – who approved the first phase of the Karachi Operation? Second – Governor Ishrat-ul-Ibad Khan belonging to the MQM and CM Qaim Ali Shah belonging to the PPP were not invited to the meeting purportedly held for the approval of the second phase of the Karachi operation. Karachi, some nine years after the signing of the Charter of Democracy, is now witnessing the emerging of new political-cum-military alliances: PML-N, PTI and the GHQ on the one side and PPP plus MQM on the other. To be certain, Karachi is also witnessing “the military’s subordination of all state institutions”. The ground reality is that PM Nawaz Sharif is abdicating his political and constitutional responsibilities, and in the process, ceding political space to the military. As a consequence, there is an incremental shifting of power from the politicians towards the military. At the federal level, PML-N wanted to maintain the status quo between the state and the Taliban. On 15 June 2014, the GHQ decided to break that status quo-and the PM was forced to jump on to the military bandwagon. Similarly, Karachi’s status quo had a potent overlap between politics and crime. Neither PPP nor the MQM wanted the status broken. On 11 March 2015, the GHQ decided to break Karachi’s status quo-and once again the PM is being left with no choice but to jump on to the military bandwagon. On January 3, the GHQ, through a press release by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), established Apex Committees as an alternative structure of governance. The GHQ-crafted Apex Committees, a civil-military hybrid, have failed to bear fruit. The two billion dollar questions are: One – where would this ceding of political space to the military end? Two – how far will this incremental shifting of power from the politicians towards the military go?To be sure, the Charter of Democracy was all about political interests of the signatories. And the one lesson to be learned is that national interests will always trump political interests.
