Democracy in distress

By Shahzad Chaudhry
March 25, 2016

The PPP has had a rough year. After being excited about the Rangers ridding Karachi of terror, it soon found itself in the crosshairs, when many off the criminal leads ended up on its own doors. Since then, the party has been on the run; now using its established defence that the military is always hounding the PPP. Thus, the show goes on. Their partners in urban Sindh, the MQM, are under even greater distress. Having been the main focus of the Rangers operation, because of its militant ways in the past, and having nurtured a crime syndicate for decades to feed its coffers, the MQM’s duality has finally been called out.

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The MQM’s defence, too, is the proclaimed threat to the ‘Mohajir’ by a Pakistani establishment that had in fact never accepted the genuineness of their chosen homeland. They may have a point, but being known to sell their support to anyone and everyone who was willing to pay the price weakens their case. Their pound of flesh is uncontested control over urban Sindh.

Many have taken this bait, including the military and other governments. Things have been as blatant as a power player, to win a passage of a critical bill in parliament or another political issue, inducting the MQM instantaneously to ministerial positions. Gradually, the MQM, with its consistent numbers in the National Assembly, has earned the sobriquet of ‘kingmaker’.

However, good things only last for so long. More importantly, as the drive to net the crime-terror syndicate deepens, the space for the MQM to keep up its old ways too has considerably shrunk. With the MQM Supremo in London legally entangled in cases of money-laundering, target killings and the murder of MQM’s deputy Imran Farooq, the guns are pointing in the direction of Altaf Hussain. The latest discovery of RAW’s support to MQM and its leadership means that the days of the MQM of old are numbered. Something has to give.

After failing spectacularly at removing the malignant elements from itself, either out of fear or inertia, the party is now faced with a revolt from the inside. Some might call it inspired. But the MQM is in the throes of transitional convulsions. The history of operations against it in the past, though, give it a convenient subterfuge that only delays the inevitable. Somewhere along the way, the MQM will need to decide whether it wants to save the party or the man.

And as if this de facto focus on politics wasn’t enough, General Musharraf has found an exit from his nemesis, the PML-N; from right under their nose, with the judiciary becoming a convenient vehicle. This has set the political house on fire, which in turn has given rise to the prevailing fears of democracy ceding even further space to the military in the tenuous civil-military equation of the country.

Other than the fact that the law could not proceed against a powerful general, who (it was understood all along) had the protection of his former institution against any serious harm. The question of how much this government has compromised its elected role just to keep the army in good humour has gained eminence. Under the initial buzz of its electoral victory, the government had brought cases against its former adversary. Questions were then raised about the real worth of the charges, given that a personal agenda to settle scores lurked behind the effort.

The trial against Musharraf was thus always a questionable affair: justified but dubious in intent. It is also possible that had it run its course, legally, it may not have passed the test of judicial probity. Since it has only stuttered since it was first initiated, the view remains largely unproven – making the Musharraf exodus an outrage to the committed democracy ideologue. Those invested in berating the military, come what may, have seized this moment to reignite their ire. One more chance to even things out with the powerful military. Idealism blinds them to the limitations in Pakistan’s current political culture. Neither a perfect society, nor a perfect democracy – where the common man is short-changed for the farce of democracy – the saga of democracy is at best an exploitative undertaking. It needs to get better; it must get better, for its own sake and credibility.

In the meanwhile, the civil-military equation is again in focus. How much has this government compromised? It seems that the need or the relevance for a more cooperative approach to running the state was realised early in this government’s tenure. This may sound bizarre to an idealist’s democratic sense, but – given the complexity of the issues that befell the government and the inherent inadequacies of a political culture that has failed to keep pace, contrasted with the overpowering performance of General Raheel Sharif – the military seems to have taken space away from the civilian dispensation.

Right or wrong, this is now a fact of life and is how the civil-military equation has found its balance. Call it the new normal. If you do not treat the equation competitively – not pitting one against the other but in a cooperative balance, as it stands today – it perfectly reflects the realities of today’s Pakistan and its political culture, warts and all.

It also unveils the lurking possibility of a reversion to an assertive civilian government, which (in the absence of General Sharif, and in the early days of a new chief) may just set about to adventurously regain its lost space. To an idealist, that may be the long-awaited moment; to a realist, the challenges will still be far too many for only one part of the government to grapple with.

A cooperative approach could either be opted for or enforced. The choice will be ours. Which way the weight will lie in the new balance may not matter much; what will remain of essence though will be a stable, cooperative balance.

The writer is a retired air-vice marshal, former ambassador and a security and political analyst.

Email: shhzdchdhryyahoo.com

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