The Chief is gone. Long live the Chief.
Gen Raheel Sharif was given a grand official farewell on Thursday. He had announced months earlier that he would not accept an extension if it was offered. Gen Abdul Waheed Kakar, too, had turned down an offer for extension. In both cases, the decision was purely personal. It did not imply a change in the army’s thinking. It would be premature to predict therefore that after Gen Raheel’s exit, Newsgate would be ignored or cases against Dr Asim Hussain withdrawn.
The issue of civil military ties was taken up at a conference organised by the Senate and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Islamabad on Thursday. Here two opposite positions were taken by Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani and veteran PML-N leader Raja Zafarul Haq. A sanguine Zafarul Haq observed that dark years had passed and Pakistan had entered the era of democratic stability. Raza Rabbani on the other hand, maintained that civil-military ties posed the biggest challenge to democracy. As he put it, the institutions which have vested interests, such as financial, economic or of controlling levers of power will not accept civilian supremacy. This explains, according to Rabbani, why whenever anyone speaks about the rule of law and the Constitution they are labeled as against the armed forces.
Unlike the US and European countries where political leadership established its supremacy by pioneering the rule of law, developing political , judicial and social institutions and even guiding the wars, the political leadership in Pakistan has grown under the shelter of bureaucracy and the military institution. This explains why it finds it difficult to stake claim for primacy in the system; it has yet to prove that it is really the voice of the masses. Instead of being offended at allegations that Parliament is only a debating club or a source for parliamentarians of getting perks and privileges, the political class has to practically prove that it is much better by shunning corruption, strengthening the institutions and serving the people instead of lording over them.
