In Pakistan, the poverty of the liberal system gave birth to military adventurism. Generals entered politics of the country, took control of the offices of the state and sent politicians to their homes. Till date there have been four military coups in Pakistan. The insubordination of the army towards the country’s elected government can be traced back to the time when the founding father of Pakistan Quaid-e-Azam M Ali Jinnah himself was the country’s Governor General. First, lieutenant general Frank Messervy resisted obeying the orders of the Governor General and was still later promoted to the rank of a full general. Later the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan army Sir Douglas Gracey refused the Governor General’s orders to lead the troops to the Kashmir front, and was not tried for insubordination and indiscipline.
The current political setup has all the major stakeholders on board (religious parties, ANP, PML(N), PPP and MQM). The army still seems to be a more powerful institution than the elected government itself. The deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was re-instated during the long march (led by Nawaz Sharif) when the Army chief General Ashfaq Pervaiz Kiyani stepped into the matter. If the Chief Justice (the highest office of the country’s judiciary) needs help from the army chief to get justice and get himself re-instated, how does the common man expect him to deliver? Who does the common man ask for justice when he is barred from his rights?
Political parties that are not liberal and who do not practice democracy in their own parties, how does the public expect them to form a just, liberal and democratic government? The PPP, one of the country’s largest self-claimed democratic political party was founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. But later the chairperson’s authority was passed onto his daughter Benazir Bhutto, and after Benazir’s death it was passed onto her son Bilawal Bhutto with her husband Asif Ali Zardari, as the co-chair person as per her will. Does the Bhutto family own the Pakistan People’s party? Why wasn’t a more experienced and senior politician such as Makhdoom Ameen Faheem made party head before Bilawal Bhutto? How does the public expect Bilawal Bhutto to run the country in a manner serving to the general public when he has lived all his life outside the state, in foreign countries?
AADIL AAMIR
Lahore
