Our Tragedy

Our tragedy of errors By Shamshad Ahmad WHETHER or not anybody accepts it, we are going through the worst crisis of our history. True, Pakistan has never been without a crisis. In fact, its post-independence political history has been replete with endemic crises and challenges that perhaps no other country in the world has ever experienced. Behind every crisis and every challenge, if there was any one factor, it was the wayward role that the military took upon itself during all these years at the cost of political institutions, constitutional supremacy and its own professional integrity.Military intervention in the state’s political system in the 1950s dealt a severe blow to the democratic process in the country. Since then, Pakistan has virtually remained under siege of its own armed forces and continues to suffer the consequences of protracted spells of military rule in terms of political chaos and socio-economic disarray.We have paid a heavy price during these spells in the form of costly wars, tragic loss of half the country, territorial setbacks, constitutional usurpation, institutional paralysis, provincial disharmony, incessant corruption, general aversion to the rule of law and the resultant erosion of law and order. In recent years, our challenges, both domestic and external, have been proliferating in a manner that has not only complicated things for us beyond redress but also badly damaged our image.With their country reeling under military dictatorship, the people of Pakistan, on their part, remain unsure of their future as an independent nation, and are naturally dismayed at the world community’s total complacency and indifference to their country’s need for freedom, democracy and pluralism which represent an indispensable asset of contemporary civilisation.The sole beneficiary of this system in our country has been the “wilful ruler” who was either “the child of fortune” or was “born into power” or who acquired power through deceit and force. We have also been steadfast in following, since our independence, the Machiavellian concept of “elimination” of political opponents through force and violence, and sans mercy. Tactical manoeuvres have been the key ingredient of our political recipe.Our post-independence history is replete with Machiavellian antics and adventures. We have seen a prime minister assassinated as part of a draconian conspiracy in 1951, another one who was legally selected as governor-general after the Quaid-i-Azam, was first saddled with the office of prime minister and then dismissed in 1953 to be replaced by a “pathetically” pro-American political no-body, another elected prime minister executed by a military dictator in 1979 and the last constitutionally elected prime minister overthrown in a military coup in 1999 and then exiled in a devious manner.The most recent of these examples was the treatment meted out to a ruling Q-League prime minister, the first and the only one from Balochistan, who was disgraced and forced to leave his office to make place for someone more pliable and more saleable to the country of his origin, the United States of America.Coups were always staged on the pretext of a “poor” political culture and calibre. Seeds of disarray were sown in Pakistan’s political arena just to brand the politicians as corrupt and inept players of the game. Almost in every instance, there was someone from the judiciary to provide a “legal” cover to the power play.The all-powerful bureaucratic-military axis has been calling the shots in a perennially unstable and chaotic political environment. They have been installing “political” persons of their choice, and in some cases “imported dual nationality holders” to head the “musical chair” governments in our political carnival. In fact, it has been an endless game of political marionettes presenting to the nation a “tragedy of errors.”For more than half a century, Pakistan has been the scene of this pitiable tragedy which has changed the course of our political and constitutional history, and totally disrupted the democratic process. It took our politicians nine years and several governments to frame our first constitution in 1956 which was abrogated by a military dictator in less than three years.Since then, we have had two constitutions, one promulgated by a Field Marshal President in 1962, and the other adopted by an elected legislature of the truncated Pakistan in 1973, which has since been amended seventeen times leaving very little of the original text in its essence. It is a different constitution altogether. Pakistan is now an archetypal example of the Machiavellian “princedom” in which sovereignty does not reside in the people but is premised on the infamous “doctrine of necessity.”The tragedy of our nation is that democracy was never allowed to flourish in our country. We deviated from our ideals and have been experimenting with systemic aberrations with no parallel in political philosophy or cotemporary history. The closest we could trace something alike is perhaps the Cromwellian era of the seventeenth century known for its assorted political experiments.These included the establishment and dissolution of several parliaments, rule of the force, rule of the saints, establishment and collapse of the “lord protectorate”, military rule and finally Cromwell’s last but unsuccessful attempt in the form of “humble petition and advice” to legalise his power through parliamentary authority.Cromwell was at least conscientious enough to realise that the source of his authority was force, not law. And he died a frustrated man within seven months after he dissolved the last parliament in disgust, having utterly failed in securing any popular basis for his power. Frustration seems to be writ large on some of the recent developments in Pakistan, including removal by the president of the country’s Chief Justice on charges of “misconduct and abuse of power.”Most observers look at this case as politically motivated and believe that the action against the Chief Justice was precipitated by his recent rulings against the government in some of the high-profile cases. These included the blocking of controversial privatisation of Pakistan Steel and a suo motu action against disappearance of hundreds of civilians ordering the government to provide information on the detainees’ whereabouts.These cases had alarmed the president who was counting on the judiciary’s support in his bid for re-election later this year for another five-year term from the same parliament which had “elected” him five years ago and which itself is completing its tenure this year. President Musharraf’s action was seen as a preemptory attempt to eliminate the likely challenge to his political future.This was also a classic case of an extreme risk miscalculation. Musharraf claims to have acted on the advice of his prime minister but in effect, as he subsequently acknowledged, the prime mover of the crisis was none other than the same old Sharifuddin Pirzada who has been associated with every military regime, and whose sole distinction as a lawyer is as the demolisher of the country’s politico-judicial set-up.According to the president, it was he who gave him the first draft of the reference against the Chief Justice leading first to a public indictment of the Chief Justice through a controversial letter by a Supreme Court advocate, and then to his unceremonious removal and unwarranted maltreatment. A political and constitutional crisis now engulfs the country, which, despite Musharraf’s “acknowledgement and rectification” of what he calls “tactical mistakes” is aggravating with public outrage and anger lawyers taking to the streets.The crisis today is no longer over an issue concerning the conduct or misconduct of an individual. It is now over the misconduct of the government which has violated all norms of civilised and constitutional behaviour. Today, not only the judiciary as an independent organ of the state is under assault, but also the media which is under attack.In Pakistan, as in England of the Cromwellian era, fundamental values of freedom, democracy and human dignity have been breached with impunity. Constitutions have been violated in letter and spirit. Institutional paralysis has kept the whole nation disenfranchised. Our feudal power structure has been exploited by successive military dictators to unleash a culture of political opportunism, corruption and ineptitude.History is replete with tales of self-righteous and self-centred rulers who forgot that power never endures and considered their reign as a mere extension of their egos and idiosyncrasies. The seventeenth century French monarch, Louis XIV, was the classic example of this mentality. His famous dictum: "L'etat, c'est moi" ("I am the state") was an expression of arrogance and an affront to the principle of “separation of powers” with its guarantees for the respect of representative national institutions.The finality of those words enunciated with a note of casual self-assurance did speak of the king’s determination to have his way but also showed his contempt for the sovereign will of the people. It is the same contempt that is being shown today to the sovereign will of our people of Pakistan. We are now learning what our military rulers consider to be the limits of their power — nothing.Everyone is anxious to know in what direction the current judicial crisis will take the country, which regrettably is today one of those few states that qualify to be called a “banana republic” and are governed by the “law of tooth and claw.” Pakistan remains listed not only among the world’s top ten dictatorships but also among the sixteen most corrupt countries of the world.Abuse of authority and actions prejudicial to the dignity of public offices are endemic in our entire governmental system. No one, not even those in the highest of places in the political and administrative hierarchy, can claim clean hands. What is needed is a transparent and non-selective accountability which should not be used as a tool of political blackmail and victimisation.It is not the chief justice of Pakistan who is on trial today; it is the whole country which has been put on a trial, and it is Pakistan’s judiciary which now has the most decisive role of our history to play. It owes many past debts to the nation. On its decision will now rest its own future and indeed the very future of Pakistan as a civilised and “civilianised” democratic state with strong and independent institutions. Our tragedy of errors must come to an end now.The writer is a former foreign secretary.