War games

Will they end?

Despite his advanced age (91 years), Asghar Khan has done a great national service by exposing the shenanigans of the ubiquitous establishment. The indefatigable retired air marshal had relentlessly pursued the petition he filed in the apex court back in 1996 accusing the ISI of financing politicians to manipulate the 1990 elections.The apex court accepting his petition is his moral vindication.
It is also a victory for all democratic forces in the country. In its short order the Bench has declared that the then COAS General Mirza Aslam Beg and the then ISI Chief General (retd) Asad Durrani has brought the military into disrepute and hence the federal government should move against them.
The court has also upheld that the MI, the ISI and the IB have no business in politics. And under the constitution the military cannot destabilise a civilian government.
It has ordered the recipients to return the money they received with profit. Now it is up to the federal government to implement the Supreme Court’s order. Let us see it has the political will to try former military officers. It will be a first in Pakistan.
According to court documents, right wing politicians were bribed to the tune of Rs 60 million to prevent the PPP from winning the elections by creating the so-called Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI).
It all started in 1988, a tumultuous year in Pakistan’s checkered political history. In May, the military dictator Zia-ul-Haq axed his own handpicked prime minster, Mohammad Khan Junejo, when he felt that he had lost control of the democratic experiment initiated by him.
The same year in August, Zia died in a mysterious plane crash. General Mirza Aslam Beg, the vice chief of staff, who decided at the last moment not to hitch a ride with Zia, took over as the new COAS. Ghulam Ishaq Khan, chairman Senate, became the new president.
Later in the year, Benazir Bhutto was elected prime minister with a wafer thin majority as a result of elections generally perceived to be free and fair. But having considered by the powers that be as a “security risk”, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan promptly sacked her in the summer of 1990.
It was the same year that Major General Pervez Musharraf as Director General Military Operations proposed to the prime minister to launch the covert Kargil operation, which she promptly rejected. Later, he was able to execute his harebrained plan under the aegis of Nawaz Sharif as prime minister. Earlier, Hamid Gul, as the ISI chief in 1988, wanted Benazir to support the Khalistan Movement. She did not oblige.
At the same time, with the active support of an obstructive presidency and backing of the GHQ, Nawaz Sharif as the chief minister of Punjab launched a full fledged smear campaign against Benazir, personal as well as political.
No one was surprised when the first woman prime minister in the Muslim world was unceremoniously booted out. Those who had thought that with the death of Zia the military would stop dabbling in politics were sadly disappointed. Now the khakis had their lynchpin in the form of Ghulam Ishaq Khan as president, doing their bidding.
It has been stated in the Supreme Court that there was no political cell working under GIK in the Presidency. What was the need? A president armed with article 58-2B was politics personified having full powers to sack the prime minister in cahoots with the deep state.
Earlier this year in a luncheon in his honour, Nawaz Sharif brazenly admitted in front of several newspaper editors and columnists that he had not asked for the tainted money. However, when a “small amount of 2.5 million rupees” was offered to him, he took it.
The Sharifs, despite being the major beneficiary, officially deny having anything to do with the political engineering at the time. But the apex court in possession of all the record knows better.
Who doesn’t know that at that time Nawaz Sharif was the blue-eyed boy of the establishment? After all the IJI was formed to prop him up against a populist political party which the generals at the helm of affairs did not find to their liking.
Aslam Beg through his lawyer has taken a novel stance in the apex court not only to defend himself but his predecessors and successors. He has claimed that not only him but also many other senior military officers never took oath under the 1973 Constitution. Hence Article 244 and Article 6, which not only prohibits military officers from taking part in politics but also asks for punishment under high treason, do not apply on them.
Obviously this lame excuse cannot be accepted. It would legitimise all past military coups. Other democratic constitutions do not specifically proscribe the military to take part in politics. Nonetheless, it is considered a universally sacrosanct principal of democracy that militaries are meant to defend the constitution not to subvert it.
Beg’s counsel, known for his connections with the deep state, has recommended a fresh oath for senior military officers. He has also suggested on behalf of his client that the ISI should be brought under the control of the army to ensure transparency. This is laughable. Everyone in Pakistan knows that the spy agency dos not take orders from civilians. In fact it fiercely resists any civilian overseeing of its operations.
The chief justice thinks that Aslam Beg acted only on behalf of the institution he was heading. But his act of disbursing money to politicians of a certain ilk certainly violates whatever oath he took and also all norms of probity, honesty and political correctness.
The attorney general is not far off the mark about the role of the higher judiciary in cahoots with military strongmen in the past to legitimise military takeovers. Thankfully the present military leadership is not afflicted with the same malaise. Similarly, the Supreme Court has shown courage by accepting Asghar Khan’s petition virtually lying dormant for the past 16 years.
There have been insinuations that under Zardari the Presidency is a hub of political activity. As the co-chairman of the ruling party his was a calculated move to become the president rather than the prime minister.
It was only when Fazal-e-Elahi was president during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s premiership and Rafiq Tarar nominated by Nawaz Sharif that the presidency was not a hub of intrigue to destabilise and unseat elected governments in cahoots with the military and intelligence establishment and the courts. Benazir Bhutto handpicked Farooq Leghari. But even he as president had no qualms in sacking her.
No matter how much things change they remain the same in some ways. General Kayani as COAS has consistently rejected suggestions to tinker with the political system. He rejected the Bangladesh model on the pretext that it had even failed in Bangladesh.
But the ISI even under him has not been entirely above board. The military and its spy agencies need to walk the talk and embrace civilian rule without ifs and buts.

The writer is Editor, Pakistan Today