, ET CONTRIBUTORS|
Updated: Dec 05, 2017, 01.36 AM IST
As the time for general elections in Pakistan, scheduled for 2018 approaches, it’s the army, more than the political parties, which is positioning itself to see that a government of its choice assumes office, after the elections. Nawaz Sharif, the only Pakistani politician, who has a strong enough political base in the country and particularly in Punjab, has been debarred from elections, by the higher judiciary, which held Sharif guilty on charges of unaccounted earnings
The team appointed by the judiciary to investigate the charges against Sharif strangely included military intelligence officials, with no investigative experience. With Asif Zardari also facing corruption allegations, the only other national party, the PPP, is feeling the heat in its only remaining stronghold in Sind. It has lost its influence almost irreparably in Punjab, from where over 60% of Parliamentarians are elected. Two major political developments occurred in Pakistan this month, which have a bearing on the coming general elections. The first was in Karachi, where a serving Army Major General,Mohammed Saeed, stitched together a controversial political deal between the mass-based, but divided MQM and a breakaway faction, the “Pakistan Sarzameen Party.” This deal seeks to undermine the London based MQM Supremo Altaf Hussain, who was once himself an army protégé.
Musharraf, a Karachi Muhajir, has long been interested in leading such an alliance. With the two national parties, the Zardari-led PPP and the Nawaz-led PML (N) weakened and divided, the army can get together a weak, fractious and pliable coalition, led by its long-time protégé Imran Khan and his Tehriq e Insaf Party, installed in power in Islamabad. This would perfectly fulfil the Army’s quest for absolute power, without any constitutional responsibility! The recent siege of the capital Islamabad, ostensibly to protest against the amendment of an electoral law, by a group of Bareilvi protesters, clearly dovetails into these ambitions of the army. The Bareilvis in Pakistan, who constitute 60% of its population, lack the financial clout of Saudi-funded Deobandis.
Ideologically, the Bareilvis have strengthened their base by their strident denunciations of Qadiani/Ahmadi Muslims, as heretics and by backing the assassin of former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer. The incompetent civilian government headed by stand-in Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was unable to control the Bareilvi demonstrations in the capital and elsewhere. The government asked the army for assistance - a request, which was turned down Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Worse still, the government agreed to Bajwa’s“advice” that it should meet the demands of the demonstrators and sack law minister Zahid Hamid. This followed an agreement signed by a serving army officer, Major General Faiz Hameed, acting as a ‘mediator,” with the demonstrators.
This abject surrender to an unruly mob infuriated the Islamabad High Court, which had ordered a crackdown on the demonstrators. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui observed that the army, which is required to act in aid of the civilian government, when asked to do so, had clearly overstepped its constitutional authority and role, by becoming a mediator between the civilian government and the demonstrators. Predictably, the ecstatic demonstrators were overjoyed and showered praise on the army!! Media and public reaction at the incompetence of Abbasi government was furious. The Express Tribune observed in an Editorial: “The deal between the State, both civilian and military facets of it, and the Faizabad protesters, is a devastating blow to the legitimacy and moral standing of the government and all state institutions”.
There are also questions about the motivations of Army Chief General Bajwa, in this abject surrender. The protestors had opposed an amendment to the electoral legislation moved by the law minister, as it was felt that the amendment would weaken constitutional provisions declaring Qadianis as ‘non-Muslims”.
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