Politics was not a "karobar" but an ideology, when the third martial law was imposed in the country in 1977. Today, it’s the other way around and many of our legislators in their declarations before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), showed, "business”, as their means of earning.
The days of ideological politics of the right and left are over. Till late 1970s, politicians used to differ with each other on manifestos and programmes, whether it’s socialism or Islamisation, but had never accused each other of being corrupt.
Some of our colleagues blame "democracy" and politics for all the problems. If that is the case, why politicians like the late Mir Ghous Bux Bizenjo, the late Khan Abdul Wali Khan, the late Maulana Mufti Mahmood, the late Prof Ghafoor Ahmad and the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, despite having serious differences hardly accused each other of using politics as business.
But, the same could not be said about the legacy of most of them or even for the third generation, some of whom now have, "offshore companies”, thanks to their fathers. It’s just a reflection of a political journey from ideology to business or ‘karobari siyasat’. It is sad that the third generation is carrying the burden of corruption.
Sharifs, Zardaris or Khan, belong to a generation which has entered into politics when corruption, not ideology, is an issue. Some become victim, others are the accused in this new political culture. The last five assemblies had discussed corruption as the key issues, and four were dismissed on this very issue.
Politics had not become a "karobar”, during the six years of civilian rule from 1972 to 1976. One may criticise politicians and the rulers for their economic policies, suppressing opponents, media censorship etc, but even Bhutto's worst critics gave him credit for taking politics from drawing room to masses.
Since politics remained an ideological issue, the standard of debate was much higher in the parliament than it is today. In those days, quality debates used to be held on ideological, global and economical issues.
It was this maturity which resulted in a consensus on the Constitution of 1973, making a demoralised nation after a defeat in 1971 into a highly motivated nation, which hosted the 2nd Islamic Conference, initiated nuclear programme and Pakistan become the leader of the Third World and Islamic World.
As politics started taking it roots, struck a "conspiracy”, not only to defame politicians but politics too. The then opposition was "used" by the military establishment in connivance with some politicians of the ruling PPP and also judiciary.
But, politics remained ideological even when the third martial law was imposed on July 5, 1977. The establishment assured the PNA leaders that elections were held in 90 days and sought their support.
Postponement of elections in October, 1977 was the turning point in our political history and the beginning of "Karobari siyast”. Bhutto still was the main hurdle and was popular too. Thus, he was removed, again in convenience with the same as mentioned above.
"Corruption”, injected not only in politics but also in the establishment. The rise of "narco power”, and arms smuggling became the major business in those years with scores of stories of the alleged involvement of some of the then generals and pro-Zia politicians.
To defame politics and democracy, ideological student groups were armed and after some bloody clashes, student unions were banned, which brought an end to nursery of politics. Trade unions were the next and they were not only banned but many union leaders started indulging in corruption.
From Bhutto's execution to Zia's referendum, the politics started changing its colours. Since the PPP was still a strong political force, particularly in Punjab and Sindh, the idea of non-party based elections was introduced which resulted in division of politics, from party-based to biradari-based. In Sindh, the ethnic, nationalist and sectarian politics were encouraged and polarisation was encouraged.
It brought an end to ideological politics. The left wing parties became naro-nationalists or ethnic while religious parties in the backdrop of Afghan jihad, became extremists. It’s a dilemma that legacy of the "clean politicians" of the 1970s, is by and large, not clean nor ideological.
Nawaz Sharif entered politics in the late 1970s.His father, Mian Mohammad Sharif, was an industrialist and had suffered due to Bhutto's policy of nationalisation and their industries were taken over. So, he is right when he gave this background in his 35 minutes speech on Monday. He is also right when he said in the 1980s, the government (martial law) had returned their eight factories. He may also be right (subject to verification and investigation) that their factories’ turn-over reached 60 crores within a year.
However, the question is why a non-political businessman allowed his two sons, Nawaz and Shahbaz, to do politics? Was it to serve or protect business, as the family never been interested in politics? Did the military government use Sharif and bargained for return of factories?
I would certainly be interested to know the rise of Ittefaq business from 1985 to October 12, 1999. If it’s all fair and transparent and power politics has nothing to do with it, other businessmen should also join politics, but if he has used politics for business, the law should take its own course.
Sharifs were the first used by the establishment against its own hand-picked prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo, when Zia sacked him and in the process Sharif became president of the PML.
He was then used when Benazir Bhutto ended her exile and returned. When I once interviewed former ISI chief, the late General Hameed Gul, he admitted that the kind of reception which she was getting on her return "scared the establishment”.
BB was right when she said, "PPP and MRD's biggest mistake was the boycott of 1985 non-party based elections which not only damaged politics and brought a breed of non-political politicians."
She too failed in preventing corruption within her own party and government, which encouraged "horse-trading”, use of huge money to save and dislodge governments.
When Nawaz Sharif became too popular and started dictating his terms, entered Imran Khan the politics. Like Sharifs, Imran Khan too was not interested in politics till 1994, after he retired from cricket and wanted to use his World Cup hero image for his personal dream, Shaukat Khanum Hospital, named after his mother.
But, he was sported by the late General Gul, who approached him and asked him to join his ideological idea of politics. IK himself admitted in his interview with me that had the PPP government not created hurdles in his mission, he would not have entered politics.
In 1996, he entered politics and made his politics revolve around one issue, "corruption" of the PPP and the PML. But, by the time, his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, became popular in 2011, he lost his image of anti status quo, as he was joined by many tainted politicians from the PPP and the PML.
Now, he became an ally of the party he had blamed for massive corruption i.e. the PPP. Since post "Panama Papers”, IK has hardly used the name of Asif Zardari in his speech. Secondly, critics started raising questions about his own offshore company and that of a few PTI leaders. Yet, he still has a better record than others, till something more comes up. But, people want to know what is his business and way of earning.
Pakistan is a strange country, where those who entered politics flourished, the poor become richer, from millionaires to billionaires, but the insect called corruption, injected in this system, has not only damaged democracy and democrats, but hardly institution is safe. Therefore, the final outcome of "Panama politics”, be zero plus zero: zero.
The writer is a senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang