Leadership crisis in Pakistan

Founder of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah's dream to make Pakistan a true democratic country in its real sense remains a dream, as we are still in search of a leader who could lead the nation like a leader. Pakistan will go to polls on July 25, for third time in succession, as two governments have completed their terms for the first time in the country’s history. However, it is yet to see a prime minister completing his term. The difference is that at least now the governments and parties in power complete their tenures. So, we will elect a new prime minister again. But we are far from finding a leader of national and international stature.

The Quaid-e-Azam was a democrat and a firm believer in the rule of law, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and an independent judiciary. He believed in a society free of exploitation of women and minority rights. All this made him a leader in a true sense, as he also practised what he believed in. It is Pakistan's bad luck that he died just a year after the Independence, and with his death we also buried his dream.

Now, we are in the re-building process and finding it difficult as we do not have quality politicians, potential leaders and democratic parties. One can have two opinions whether judiciary and media are completely free and independent, but the situation is certainly far better than in the days of dictatorship.

Same could be said about the kind of democracy we are practising. Improvement is certainly slow, but the process is exposing the leadership's worth and wealth. From Jinnah to Zia, and from Zia to Musharraf, we could not produce a leader of national and international stature. Perhaps Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the one who at least had the vision, potential and capability to lead. Yet, he lost the direction during his four-year rule and in a bid to move too fast, he committed too many political mistakes.

At the same time, it is also true that he was the only leader who remained most popular at the grassroots level, because of the way he faced prison, murder trial and execution. In the post-Jinnah era, our journey for democratic Pakistan and search for a leader received the first blow when the first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was assassinated and his murder is still a mystery. It was a bad and violent beginning for a democratic Pakistan, as it laid the foundation of a violent politics. After almost 50 years, another prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, was also assassinated at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, named after Liaquat Ali Khan. Her murder is as mysterious as that of the first PM even today.

After Jinnah, his sister Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah was perhaps the only leader, who was equally popular in both East and West Pakistan. Despite losing presidential election against dictator Ayub Khan, she won from both Dhaka and Karachi.

Fatima Jinnah and Benazir Bhutto were not the product of a martial law. They were the one who led the movement against dictatorships. One isolated herself after the defeat and did not play an active role in politics, while the other was assassinated, days before she was about to win yet another election.

Pakistan did produce leaders with potential prior to Bhutto, like Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy or AK Fazlul Huq, could have made impact had the PML laid the democratic foundations. Like some others, they too became the victims of early conspiracies hatched from 1948 to 1958.

We also had leaders like Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Maulana Bashani, Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman, Sardar Attaullah Mengal, Mir Ghous Bux Bizenjo, Mumtaz Khan Daultana, Maulana Mufti Mahmood, Maulana Abul A’la Maudoodi, GM Syed; they all entered politics pre-Partition. However, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the only one who entered politics in the late 50s, when he was not even 30 years old. However, none of the above mentioned politicians made an impact on the national politics except for ZA Bhutto.

Unfortunately, most of these leaders faced the tag of traitors, and also faced prison, trial and conviction. This also blocked the change through democratic transition and it also damaged national and ideological parties. History would judge better whether they were traitors or leaders with dissenting voices.

The post-1977 politics revolved around three key politicians: Benazir Bhutto (late), Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, leaders of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), respectively. Benazir is no more, but Nawaz Sharif is still relevant despite disqualification by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

It will be an interesting analysis where we will rate Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan. The latter is yet to be tested as a prime minister, and therefore has a clean record, while Nawaz Sharif had his luck three times and remained unlucky all the three time as he could not complete his term as the PM.

It is true that Sharif was the product of General Zia, like Bhutto was the product of Ayub Khan, but it’s our dilemma that when you had long dictatorships and martial laws, some leaders emerge and others are produced. When Sharif started challenging his 'masters', he lost the confidence even after his first tenure.

Gen Zia wanted some new faces to challenge the PPP and Bhuttos particularly in Punjab. He once even approached Imran Khan and also offered him a ministry. But, since he was too busy in his cricket life, he turned down the offer. The second attempt was made in 1993, when the establishment got disappointed with both Benazir and Nawaz.

Former ISI chief Lt-Gen Hameed Gul planned a new party of 'notables’ and offered both Imran and the late Abdus Sattar Edhi to join him. Imran once told the writer that initially he got close to Gul, but soon realised that he had some other agenda. "Yes, it is true,” he added.

Imran was also offered an important slot by General (retd) Pervez Musharraf, after he staged a coup on Oct 12, 1999. Imran's party was just two years old and they found something in common i.e. both were against BB and Nawaz. So, Musharraf, looking for technocrats and well-known faces, offered Imran to join his government. Imran supported Musharraf's 7-point agenda and also voted for him in referendum, but turned down his offer.

So, Imran can't be called a product of martial law or dictators. But, he has yet to be tested as a leader and it will be interesting to watch in case his party wins and he becomes the prime minister. His critics call him Taliban Khan, but among the present global leaders, he had idolised 92-year-old Malaysian leader, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, while Nawaz Sharif is impressed by Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan.

Pakistan's ruling elite has failed to lay the foundation of real democracy. We also failed in abolishing the feudal and Sardari system, which negate democratic values and encourage dynastic politics or so-called electables politics. We also destroyed nurseries, which produced leaders i.e. student and trade unions.

The majority of our post-Independence politicians are the product of Ayub's basic democracy (BD) system, Gen Zia's non-party system and Musharraf's minus Benazir-Nawaz system of democracy. These self-imposed systems also corrupted politicians as they were offered perks to change their loyalties.

All is not lost and thanks to 10-year of fragile democracy, people now have a choice to vote for parties other than the PML-N and the PPP.

The dilemma is that in the last 70 years, we could not find a leader who had popular base in all four provinces. When the East Pakistan was part of Pakistan, even then we struggled to find someone, and a party which is equally popular in both wings.

So, the search is on to find a true leader of a national and international stature as we go to yet another election on July 25, 2018. Let the process continue and we may be able to find someone. What we need is continuity of democracy, but both in the country and in the parties.

  The writer is a senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang.

Twitter: @MazharAbbasGEO