Pakistani generals are never out of the news. This includes both serving and retired ones. They draw attention, whether it is a security or terrorism policy issue or it is a purely civilian domestic political crisis. Three sets of factors help them to attract attention. The civilian political leaders have not been able to create a consensus-based viable civilian alternative. Pakistans political class is so polarized that they create the crisis of legitimacy for each other and they spend their energies in undermining each other, making it difficult for any civilian government to rule with confidence. The on-going confrontation between the federal government and the Supreme Court and the efforts of the opposition to get political mileage out of it focuses attention on the possible response of the military if this confrontation gets out of hand.
Pakistan has shaped up as a security state, either being paranoid about external threats or adopting a strident posture in foreign policy. This has turned Pakistan into a centralized and assertive state with a powerful and equipped military. Pakistans political class, especially those hailing from the Punjab, hardly realise that such a centralized and militarized state can never create autonomous civilian institutions and processes.
The repeated military rule helps the senior commanders to spread out their influence in the society. In all such societies, the top echelons of the military become a privileged caste. They tend to overwhelm all the major civilian sectors of the society. This sustains their influence even when the military is not in power. Quite often, these serving and retired officers also develop the aura of self-righteousness and tend to offer categorical views on how to deal with national issues. As the civilian political and societal leaders falter in managing their affairs, the militarized societies cannot easily become fully civilianized.
The bankruptcy of the political parties is exposed from the fact that their leadership welcomes any general joining the party without demanding an apology from them if they have served any military regime in any capacity.
The attention on the role of retired senior military officers, especially the generals, has been highlighted again because the former President General (retired) Pervez Musharraf has decided to reinvent himself as a political leader. This distinguishes him from earlier military rulers. Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan lived a quiet life after being ousted from power in March 1969 and December 1971 respectively.
Though the Musharraf loyalists had launched the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) in Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf decided to re-launch it in London on October 1, 2010. His decision was received with much interest by the Pakistani media. Further, he issued several controversial statements on his coup in October 1999, relations with India and Kashmir, which gave him additional attention in Pakistani media. His comments on the intellectual capacity of Nawaz Sharif irked the PML (N) that retaliated by issuing a charge-sheet against him. All this helped Pervez Musharraf to stay in the headlines.
Pervez Musharraf entered politics because he thinks that he was a better ruler than all the previous military rulers and the current civilian rulers of Pakistan. His assessment is that the people are alienated from the PPP and the PML (N), making it easy for him to stage a comeback. He expects that the people will welcome his return because he will fill what he describes as the leadership void in Pakistan. He also thinks that the bureaucracy and the military will extend their tacit support to him as both are extremely unhappy with the current political leaders.
The real test of Musharraf will be on his return to Pakistan. Unless he demonstrates credible public support on the ground, nobody will take him seriously. For most people, his political career came to an end in August 2008 when he resigned from the presidency. He has to prove this assumption wrong after returning to Pakistan. He may face some court cases on his return.
Musharraf and other generals who enter politics can be divided into three broad categories. First, a good number of generals and other senior officers got a direct exposure to politics by serving different military regimes. After their retirement they decided to enter politics. Though they were the beneficiaries of military rule, but after their retirement they criticize military rule in order to establish their credibility in civilian circles.
Second, some retired senior officers want to make a new career in politics and societal affairs. Such a shift is not a problem with those whose families have political and ethnic support base that enables them to win the elections and hold cabinet positions. However, they are known for their civilian work rather than their military background.
A number of generals entered politics in a situation of political crisis. The best example is that of Air Marshal Asghar Khan who entered politics in November 1968 against Ayub Khan after Z.A. Bhutto was arrested. A number of other retired generals entered politics 1968-69. However, all, including Asghar Khan, failed in electoral politics. Some retired military officers entered politics after the PNA agitation kicked off against the Bhutto government in 1977. Asghar Khan established more than one party and Aslam Beg also launched his own party after trying his political luck briefly with the PML-J. These political parties do not count.
Third, there are several retired generals whose mental processes got frozen in the Afghanistan experience. They project themselves as Islamic-militancy ideologues and preach radical Islamic ideology and support the Taliban and other militant groups. A number of officers of the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and above who worked as the ISI conduit with militant groups continued to support their cause after their retirement. Most retired generals have adopted anti-U.S. posture. It is not clear if their mindset has changed or they have adopted this posture for their acceptability in civilian political right and Islamic circles.
No matter how and why generals enter politics, none has risen to unrivalled prominence. Their role in politics is controversial and this is not likely to change because none has so far offered anything new.
The writer is an independent political and defence analyst.
