Politics a ‘billionaires’ game’ now

Politics was a romance with ideology, leadership and programme till 70s, which saw the growth of committed workers who were not much exposed to corruption. Today, it’s a billionaires’ game as reflected from the alleged corruption cases of 150 ‘mega projects’ or Rs230 billions recovered every year through illegal means in Karachi and goes to civilian and non-civilian mafias. All this has made political workers irrelevant, whether belonging to the right or liberal parties. Why politics became so corrupt and what is the way forward?
Is it not a dilemma of our politics that the party, which had dominated national scene for 40 years, whether in opposition or in power, is now in ‘coma,’ largely due to self-inflicted disease of corruption.
Today, Pakistanis looked either towards Imran Khan, as perhaps the last charismatic leader, or veteran Nawaz Sharif who still has stronghold in Punjab. Imran, still not been accused of corruption but the same can’t be said about some of his other party leaders or ministers in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Corruption is so deep rooted that it has now become a part of our political culture and an accepted norm. There is hardly any institution one can look toward as clean. If the nationalists failed in promoting nationalism, the religious parties could not unite the nation. On the contrary, they divided the nation since the days of 1977 movement in the name of Nizam-e-Mustafa when they joined hands with a military dictator.
But no party has been damaged in a systematic manner as Pakistan first national party — Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). But, in the process to get PPP leaders indulge into corruption, other segments of the society, including the media, also fell in the same trap.
As it happened in most of the third world countries and also in Latin America, the politics was corrupted and there are some very big names who later faced charges of corruption.
“The party is over.” This term was first used during the opposition, Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) movement in 1977 against the than Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, by the than US Political Officer, US Consulate General, Lahore, Jan M Gibney. Bhutto responded in the National Assembly, “The party is not over. Elephants have long ears.” (quotes from Profile of Intelligence, by Brig. Syed A.I. Trimizi.
In the same book, he also disclosed how Americans supported and aided the movement and ultimately ensured Bhutto’s hanging. Much before court verdict a telegraph message from Washington was intercepted to the US local officer, to ensure Bhutto was hanged.
The party survived till the assassination of another Bhutto. This time it is his daughter, Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007. It was not only a burial of the first woman prime minister of the Muslim world, PPP co-chairperson but also a burial of the ideology of the PPP. What followed was a party of a billionaire and a culture of corruption, which ultimately led to disaster and party was wiped out from all provinces except Sindh.
Bhutto and Benazir were perhaps the most charismatic leaders of Pakistan, after Quaid-i-Azam, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, who also had roots in the masses. It took General Ziaul Haq 11 years to crush the PPP, but it was after 1988 that the party leaders been accused of corruption. The PPP never faced this charge from 1967 to 1987. It may be a coincident but majority of the corruption cases against the PPP, revolved around one man i.e. former President Asif Ali Zardari for which he faced long prison.
A critique says Zia used all kinds of tactics to destroy the PPP, and accused him of creating parties like the MQM and backing Sindhi nationalists like G M Syed to create ethnic division in Sindh. He first used Jamaat-e-Islami to ensure Bhutto’s hanging. Later, General Jillani was assigned the task to groomed Nawaz Sharif.
Since politics was based on certain ideologies and commitment, the political leaders or workers went to jail, not on charges of terrorism, corruption or terror financing, but on political grounds. The terms like working against national interest, ideology of Pakistan or against the State, are even used today, to suppress politicians, but it started in the early 50s, when under American pressure Pakistan banned the Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP).
CPP Secretary General Hasan Nasir was the first high-profile political leader who died of torture in Shahi Qila, Lahore. Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Maulana Maududi faced death sentence under Field Marshal Ayub Khan and so was Sheikh Mujeeb’s Agar Tala Sazish case. During the first elected government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the opposition faced prison on political issues.
But none of these leaders had ever been accused of corruption. When Field Marshal Ayub Khan had decided to prolong his rule and tried to become a “civilian leader,” corruption started taking roots, first during his self-styled system of Basic Democracy, and than during the presidential elections. Perhaps, the oldest surviving bureaucrat, Roedad Khan knows better than anyone else that how dictators corrupted institutions. The post-80s politics was too polluted with corruption after the MRD movement in 1983, which took roots in rural areas of Sindh in particular, unlike 1977, movement based in urban cities.
No leader had exploited the name of religion to prolong his rule as Zia and created so many divisions in the nation. Like Ayub formula of BD system, Zia, introduced system of elections on non-party basis.
Corrupt politicians, journalists, judiciary and intellectuals were part of a well-designed policy. The first major exposure to organised corruption came, first during the formation of Islami Jamohuri Ittehad (IJI) in 1988 followed by a vote of no-confidence against Benazir Bhutto in 1989, and finally the distribution of money among politicians through Mehran Bank scam.
Ironically, the establishment first corrupted the politicians and then got civilian governments dismissed on charges of corruption. The purpose of sacking Muhammad Khan Junejo government, Benazir and Nawaz governments twice was not to ‘clean up’ politics from corruption but only to malign the system.
The corrupt politicians fell in the trap, and the millionaires in the 80s are billionaires today. The politics of ideology has been replaced by politics of plots, china-cutting, commissions and omissions. Since the middle class is more vulnerable to corruption, even the parties like the MQM and the PTI have been hit by this lethal disease.
The ideological parties like the PPP and the ANP have lost their ideological colour. Even religious parties like the JUI-F could not save itself while Jamaat-e-Islami, though been accused of getting funds during the PNA movement and lost its image under Zia, still has not faced the allegations of corruption the ruling parties had faced.
It is a defining movement in our political history, when the nation is fighting a war against terrorism, It is also time to correct ourselves from the “historic wrong,” when the establishment decided to corrupt politics.
But politics can’t be cleaned through Article 62 and 63, but by changing political discourse i.e. through transparent tax culture, a clean bureaucracy, both civil and military and a strong independent, credible and least corrupt accountability bureau.
The revival of politics of ideology is linked with the revival of transparent political culture. At the moment, despite having faith in democracy, it is politics of billionaires.The writer is the senior columnist and analyst of GEO, The News and Jang.