Bitter lessons from the past
Four decades ago, ZA Bhutto was hanged. But he still lives in memory of many Pakistanis from all walks of life.
Pakistanis still debate the evidence against him. His supporters call his hanging a judicial murder.
Bhutto was hanged because he enjoyed grassroot support, but his party lacked organisation. It is not the law, but street power that gets doomed leaders like Mujeeb acquitted and innocent persons like Bhutto hanged. Roedad Khan, in his Pakistan: A Dream gone Sour’ writes Agartala Conspiracy Case was withdrawn, not because the prosecution case against Mujeeb was weak, but because over a million people were out on the streets of Dhaka’
Roedad says, ‘Bhutto was a doomed man, once it became clear that that he continued to remain popular with masses even after loss of office and that nothing could stop him from staging a comeback in the free fair and impartial elections which Zia had promised to the people of Pakistan’.
When Parliament becomes irreverent to masses, non-political or non-elected entities ascend in the asymmetry to make it irrelevant. Bhuttos are hanged and Sharifs exiled, ousted or jailed
Bhutto was a pseudo-democrat contemptuous of the vote. So, a million pseudo-supporters sat at home instead of coming on the streets. According to Asghar Khan’s We’ve Learnt Nothing from History: ‘Bhutto …told me that he was sure that if I joined hands with him…We can then rule together’. The people are stupid and I know how to fool them. I will have the danda (stick) in my hand and no one will be able to remove us for twenty years”.
He also says, ‘In order to acquire majority, the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) was used to advise and browbeat politicians to join the King’s Party’.
Even our prime minister Imran Khan laments in his autobiography Pakistan, A personal History, ‘Cash is essential for political candidates in Pakistan, who can spend a minimum of 10 million rupees in rural constituencies. No politician in country’s history up till then had ever beaten the establishment’ [ISI’s Major-General Ehtisham] ‘Zamir gave me the ISI’s assessment of how many seats each party could get in the autumn elections… Sadly this has been a legacy of intelligence agencies in Pakistan, who without a proper broad-based analysis, have made decisions which have proved disastrous for our country. This was my first experience of dealing with the ISI’ ‘Consequently a lot of potentially good candidates abandoned us. The ones that were left were turned on by the ISI; its agents either threatened the Tehreek-e-Insaf candidates or cajoled or lured them into Musharraf’s PML-Q… Some candidates gave up altogether, telling me they could not fight the ISI.’.
While we mourn ‘judicial murder ‘of ZA Bhutto, let us recall history. Did our leaders respect our constitution? The ‘institutional boundaries ‘are crystal clear. But, ‘blurred’ in minds of purblind players– ruling bureaucrats, judges, and praetorians.
The rot starts in minds when executive, parliament or judiciary oversteps the limits of its authority. The script is ‘I’m the constitution’ History teems with luminaries who harboured supra-constitutional hallucinations. Till the syndrome is corrected, Pakistan will remain a playground of soldiers of fortune in khaki or mufti.
Today, we have no leader, like Quaid-e-Azam, with a ‘world view’, no ‘story line’ of sustained committed struggle. Stanley A Kochanek unpuzzles the conundrum by pointing out ‘Parties in Pakistan are built from the top-down and are identified with their founders. The office holders are appointed by the leader. Membership rolls are largely bogus and organisational structure exists only on paper’ (Interest groups and Development).
Do the people in a land of sand-dunes have the right to revolt? Liberalist philosophers suggests there is a limit beyond which obedience to rule of law is no longer sacrosanct. The US Declaration of Independence à’ la Locke provides that it is citizens’ duty to throw off a despotic government and provide new Guards for their Security.
An average Pakistani believes that revolutions are not made, they come about from Heavens. The masses remained silent spectators to the War of Independence (Sepoy Mutiny 1857) and nine isolated uprisings in Bengal.
Aware of the selfishness of the Indian people, the British created a class of chiefs (chieftains) to suit their need for loyalists, war fund raisers and recruiters in the post-Mutiny period and during the Second World War. Peek into the pre-partition gazetteers and you would know the lineage of today’s’ Tiwanas, Nawabs, Pirs, Syed Faqirs, Qizilbash, Kharrals, Gakhars, and their ilk. A gubernatorial gazetteer states, ‘I have for many years felt convinced that the time had arrived for the Government to try to introduce some distinction for those who can show hereditary services before the Hon’ble Company’s rule in India ceased. I have often said that I should be proud to wear a Copper Order, bearing merely the words ‘Teesri pusht Sirkar Company ka Naukar’.
Some pirs (shrine holders) and mashaikh (religious scholars) even quoted verses from Holy Quran to justify allegiance to Englishman (amir, ruler), after loyalty to Allah and the Messenger (Peace be upon hm)). They pointed out that Quran ordained that ihsan (favour) be returned with favour. The ihsan were British favours like titles (khan bahadur, sir, etc), office of honorary magistrate, assistant commissioner, etc.
Gandhi astutely perceived that Indians themselves allowed themselves to be colonised for their own material interests. He lamented that Indians had become ‘sly sycophants and willing servants of the Empire thereby proving to the world that they were morally unfit to serve the country. Gandhi’s ethos reverberated in revolutionary ideologies of several revolutionary movements.
Ayub Khan added the chapter of 22 families to the English-raj aristocracy. About 460 scions of the pre-partition chiefs along with industrial barons created in Ayub era are returned again and again to assemblies.
Demokratia (power of the people) could never equalise citizens. However, all democracies envisioned ‘opportunities for political participation to larger proportions of the population’, and across-the-board accountability. Democracy is a progressive effort to equalise citizens before law, rather than legalising mafias.
The American founding father James Maddison presented idea of a senate as a bulwark against vulgarities of Aristotelian unicameral legislature, a house of the common men (akin to House of Commons, a Lok Sabha or a National Assembly). What a pity that demokratia (power of the people) never succeeded in equalising citizens in Pakistan.
Most nominees, even those of the Naya Pakistan party, are filthy rich. Even our lower house has no place for paupers. Then who would do pro-poor legislation? Evolve a national healthcare and education system? Ensure basic facilities and justice at doorstep? Media as the tertiary wing of the parliament is docile.
Since creation of Pakistan, there has been little pro-poor representation. A political order and culture, dominated by feudals, industrial robber barons, tribal dynasties or their extended clans, and mullahs, fostered clienteles’ politics. Taxes become regressive, throttling the poor, and sparing the rich (owners of plazas, car fleets, ‘farm’ houses, posh idyllic mansions including those at Bani Gala, Jati Umra, Clifton, Sea View, and elsewhere at home and abroad).
There is abhorrence to taxing the network of supporters. A tendency to rely on or blame Uncle Sam for the country’s problems, leverage Pakistan’s geographic location to attract foreign funds instead of tapping own resources, including its rich tax base. Creating divisions in society by popularising extremist versions of role of Islam, justifying persecution of minorities.
When Parliament becomes irreverent to masses, non-political or non-elected entities ascend in the asymmetry to make it irrelevant. Bhuttos are hanged and Sharifs exiled, ousted or jailed.
Let’s pray our sand-dune rulers come up with, at least a uniform education, healthcare and housing policy Masses erupt in volcanic support when they are hanged or kicked out by visible or invisible forces.
