It is not people but ideas that survive
A ‘special court’ was set up to try General Musharraf, that ‘special court’ or whatever is special about it has now ruled that it is not just Musharraf who should be tried for acts of omission and commission while in office and in declaring the November emergency, but has added to this illustrious list other luminaries, which, in the court’s view, were equally responsible in advising Musharraf to impose the emergency. This case of treason is turning to a street with a closed end, predictable too, but the issue here is not the person, individuals or how inept democratic leaders went about this, but a larger issue of vital importance to Pakistan, i.e., imposition of military coups, martial laws, emergencies, referendums, PCO’s, LFO’s, exiles and hangings.
Not many dates commemorating memorable achievements come to mind in our nation’s history. Such dearth that 28th May 1998 or Youm-e-Takbir, when Pakistan went nuclear, is a joyous occasion for this nation. We would obviously not celebrate Nobel Laureates, Malala Yousafzai or Dr Abdul Salam, but would rejoice to no end on us going nuclear.
One such date of the many that include wars, insurgencies, ousters, exile, return and assassination of civilian governments and their leaders is 12th October 1999. Musharraf became the master of all he surveyed. His first few years in office were not exactly as he would have thought, unable to find international recognition, visiting Vietnam and Myanmar as his overseas sojourns, rounding up political activists and envisioning a grandiose, engineered political awakening of the masses like his predecessors. However, a fateful day like 9/11 turned out to be a momentous one for Pakistan’s self-styled Ataturk and the rest, as they say, is history.
Ayub Khan cannily used the labyrinths of power and prestige in a nascent state by plotting a coup d‘état against President Iskander Mirza, forcing him into exile, muzzling the press and jailing political opponents
In our case, military takeovers have proved to be detrimental to the state, the federation’s unity, institutions, civil liberties and rights. Ayub Khan cannily used the labyrinths of power and prestige in a nascent state by plotting a coup d‘état against President Iskander Mirza, forcing him into exile, muzzling the press and jailing political opponents. But these misdeeds, significant in any civilised society, ironically, stand pale to his greater misdeeds. Ayub laid the foundations of ruin and set the erroneous tradition of creating his own party, holding a referendum, presenting his own constitution, rigging elections and introducing a system of Basic Democracy that the De Gaulle of Asia thought his people needed to learn so they could know democracy. However, three most significant events of his era stand out for they shaped many events later. The first has to obviously be the field marshal’s conduct towards Fatima Jinnah. His campaign against her, his condescending attitude towards the Quaid’s sister and subsequent treatment is unpardonable. Secondly, the breach of accord and trust that he reached with the dissident Nauroz Khan in Balochistan and the latter’s hanging sowed the seeds of discontent with our Baloch brethren so deep that Balochistan is still simmering. Lastly, his treatment of Bengalis and East Pakistan, including the complete mishandling that was the Agartala case, set in motion the chain of events that led to those dark and fateful nights of December 1971. As for the apologists who credit Ayub Khan with being the architect of whatever infrastructure and ‘development’ that Pakistan has today, it has more to do with both American advisors and the abundant aid that flowed through their coffers since we were the west’s most “allied ally” back then also.
When deafening cries were ringing aloud in his kingdom to save it from imminent collapse, the Mogul Emperor Muhammad Shah ‘Rangila’ was making merry and was oblivious to the inevitable. The less said about Yahya Khan the better and for General Zia-ul-Haq too. It was the latter, after all, who famously said “What is constitution but a piece of paper?” He might have hung Bhutto, whom he once eulogised for his “services and special affection for the army”; for there truly was one grave and two people. Zia was neither able to Islamise Pakistan nor create the caliphate he aspired to mount. Pakistan is in the throes of narcotics, illicit weapons, in tolerance, provincial disharmony, violence within sects and with a totally devastated social fabric and ethos due to the mujahid of Islam. A glorious feat, though, that Pakistan also recorded during Zia’s rule was the hanging of a popular and democratic leader. No counties in the world but Pakistan and Turkey have hung their premiers.
As for General Musharraf, let us leave it to history to cast him into whatever light that it may choose to. But could there be a greater anguish and torment of being held a prisoner in a land that he once ruled with an iron fist and that too at a time when his nemesis is the prime minister of Pakistan?
Pakistan is in the throes of narcotics, illicit weapons, in tolerance, provincial disharmony, violence within sects and with a totally devastated social fabric and ethos due to the mujahid of Islam
While we have established that non democratic interludes have most certainly not augured well for us as a country and our outlook as a nation, this makes the task of our democratic elites all the more important. It is disappointing to note that so far they have failed to match the expectations of their electorates and until they set their house in order and deliver, they will not find much support from the ever increasing hungry, poor and downtrodden masses. The great Iqbal comes to mind:
Nigah-e-Faqr Main Shaan-e-Sikandari kya hai?
Khiraaj ki jo Gada ho, Wo Qaisri kya hai?
Falaq ne un ko ata ki hai ko Khawajgi ke Jinhain
Khabar nahin Rawish-e-Banda Parwari kya hai?
Loosely Translated;
The splendour of a monarch great is worthless for the free and bold,
Where lies the grandeur of a king, whose riches rest on borrowed gold?
Luck favours the fool and the mean, and exalts and lifts to the skies
Only those who are base and low and know not how to patronise.
It is not people but ideas that survive. Pakistan is one such idea but, we the people, the nation, warrant introspection and soul searching and a clearly thought, determined, correct democratic path that Pakistan must now take.