PNA, IJI, so on and so forth

Side-effect
The writer is a poet and author based in Islamabad.
It is said that public memory is short. In Pakistan, public memory is perhaps too short. A lack of any sense of political history and a severe impatience with the democratic political process mar the thinking and actions of the affluent middle-class of Pakistan – the class that is becoming more and more vocal and influential in matters of polity, economy and society.
Therefore, it is all the more necessary to remind us all that what is happening on the political landscape of Pakistan today is not entirely new. Let us go back and see what happened after 1971 and just before and after the general elections held in 1977 and 1990.
A new country came into being after the secession of East Pakistan in 1971: West Pakistan became Pakistan. This country had a different dynamic from the original Pakistan founded in 1947 in terms of population, balance of power between federating units, sociology and economy.
Today, we can comfortably argue that it was not only Bangladesh that was created in 1971 but there was a different Pakistan that also came into existence. The only difference between the two countries was that Bangladesh had a new ideology, while Pakistan emphasised retaining the original premise for the partition of British India as its raison detre’.
However, in more practical terms, the affairs of the state had to be redefined in light of new realities and the claim to authority between different stakeholders was to be renegotiated. The period between 1972 and 1977 saw a democratic transition taking place.
The 1973 Constitution was promulgated after an agreement was reached between all the political forces and the foundations of a new republic were laid, which guaranteed fundamental rights to all citizens and endorsed the federal nature of the state.
The first general elections of the ‘new’ Pakistan, under the new constitution, were held in the month of

March 1977. Before that, the opposition combined and forged its ranks under the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). The flag of the PNA had nine stars, representing the nine political parties of the alliance, on a dark green background symbolising the colour of Islam.
Their one-point agenda was to get rid of the PPP and overthrow Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in the 1977 elections. Although Islam was used as a rallying point and later dominated the political discourse of the PNA, the alliance contained an abnormal mix of political ideologies including communism, secularism, socialism and regional nationalisms.
After a joint campaign, whipping up the emotions of people along the length and breadth of Pakistan, influencing and utilising the press to its benefit, the PNA lost the 1977 elections. The alliance leadership was infuriated, blamed the PPP of rigging the polls and started agitation in all the major cities.
It was initially called the PNA movement but soon came to be known as Tehreek-e-Nizam-e-Mustafa. The right-wing, as it classically happens in the Muslim world, with the tacit or latent support of the US government of the time, took charge of the movement from people like Khan Abdul Wali Khan and Air Marshal (r) Asghar Khan. After some weeks of protests, negotiations between the PPP and the PNA began.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s veteran leader and one of the few individuals respected across the ideological and party divides, Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, who recently passed away in Karachi, confirmed that an agreement was reached between the two groups in June 1977. Bhutto was to sign it on July 5th. It was agreed that by-elections would take place on about 20 National Assembly seats besides re-election on provincial assembly seats in four provinces. Bhutto would have remained in power anyway at the national level, as the PPP would have been the single largest party even if it didn’t enjoy a simple majority.
But, before the elected prime minister could sign the pact with the opposition, he was removed by the military by what is ironically called ‘Operation Fair Play’. An eleven-year-long darkness stretched over Pakistan’s politics and society and continues to cast its shadows on our present.
While right-wing parties like Jamaat-e-Islami accepted Gen Zia’s tutelage and command, supported his so-called Islamisation and participated in the war in Afghanistan, Wali Khan and Asghar Khan spent years behind bars or under house arrest after Bhutto was murdered by the Zia regime.
The leftist groups that supported the PNA were crushed or eliminated. Except for G M Syed’s party, most of the liberal, nationalist and leftist groups joined hands with the PPP in the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in the 1980s.
Benazir Bhutto became the prime minister of Pakistan in December 1988 after Gen Zia was killed along with his compatriots when a bomb exploded in the aircraft he was flying in. But before Benazir could complete her term, she was overthrown using undemocratic powers enjoyed by the president of that time after the constitutional amendment to this effect introduced by Gen Zia. The president then was the civil servant-turned-politician Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
Soon after, Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) – the Islamic Democratic Alliance – was formed which again included right-wing and centrist parties whose single point agenda was to block the PPP from coming to power again. Twenty-two years after the formation of the IJI, we all know that it was an establishment’s ploy and its member politicians were provided funds by the president and the security establishment to win the 1990 elections. Benazir Bhutto was wrongly removed and unscrupulously denied the chance to win the subsequent election. No more details are required here.
After Gen Musharraf’s long martial rule, made legally possible in many ways by the support of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the alliance of religious parties like Jamaat-e-Islami and the factions of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, et al, a faction of the Pakistan Muslim League and the MQM, was finally over, the PPP happened to be the single largest party in the national legislature once again.
The country continues to suffer from a war, both within and outside. The conspiracies and the intrigues against the civilian leadership add fuel to the fire. Nevertheless, the PPP-led coalition may well be criticised for shortfalls in economic performance, inability to resolve the energy crisis it inherited, and the poor governance of certain public sector institutions. But it did try to create effective social safety nets; made Pakistan more food secure and its rural economy more vibrant by investing into farmers. The credit is shared between the PPP and those sitting in parliament who successfully transformed the structure of the state, made the federating units more powerful, promoted just allocation of resources among them and tried to politically mainstream the neglected parts of the country.
It is this parliament that empowered the Election Commission, appointed five commissioners instead of only one, made it mandatory to have an interim administration for holding elections and let every political force operate freely across the country.
In these circumstances when we are again going through a democratic transition in the face of all odds, some of us may not see the rise of Dr Tahirul Qadri as a mere coincidence. When Nawaz Sharif couldn’t be convinced fully to rally support by hook or by crook for blocking the PPP by any means, when it recently became obvious to certain quarters of the permanent civil and military establishment that Imran Khan and his PTI are not popular enough, enter Dr Qadri with his wish list. Who joins him first? The MQM – the party sharing power at the federal level and in Sindh for over a decade.
Email: harris.khaliquegmail.com