A Straight “No” To Army’s Intervention In Politics

Often I contemplate why we, as civilians, assume that we cannot govern the country? Haven’t we — the “bloody civilians” as the army thinks — recognized our worth in all these 63 years of Independence?

A few days back during a debate with a friend he said to me:

“Civilians like you are worth nothing in the political system of this country”

Now I don’t understand one thing: why underestimating yourself as a civilian? Will we always remain “bloody civilians” in the eyes of uniformed ones?

Army is an institution, not a contractual leadership icon. It is we, the civilians, who are going to make any difference. If not, we will always keep on hanging between the 10 years military rule and couple of years civilian rule — the epitome of Pakistan’s political history. And If the things will keep going on in such a way, we will yet remain confused forever which ideology to follow — military or civilian. Army “may” change things to good for a short period of time, but it won’t and it can’t change things the way we need it for a long-term progression.

PS: I, in any case, am not endorsing the “democracy”. I don’t believe in this “ism” or that “ism”, and which is a different debate. I only intend to say that the “bloody civilians” are worthy of ruling too. Besides, the army’s influence in the politics of Pakistan should be subdued.

Clash Of Ideologies

While we’ve good examples of other countries to follow, we’re stick to our self-nurtured habits of creating our own unparalleled examples in the world. And so, no wonder if we fall each time to the lowest regression because Pakistan remain to date a testing laboratory where each day and in each regime we experiment new lamentable things

Since the time Pakistan has gained independence, it’s sometimes with the bottom part on top and sometimes the top part on bottom. The clash of ideologies is a chief ingredient in country’s social and political structure. The usual debates in the country, pointing mainly towards the major tier of clash of ideologies, are that of secularism, conservatism, democracy and dictatorship.

Despite that Pakistan is said to be an “Islamic” country having the official name “Islamic” Republic of Pakistan, the current and major lot of national and ethnical political parties along with the ruling party are left-wingers.

Pakistan was meant to be a democratic Islamic state. As the Jinnah said before the Sibi Darbar in 1948:

“Let us lay the foundations of our democracy on the basis of truly Islamic ideals and principles. Our Almighty has taught us that our decisions in the affairs of the state shall be guided by discussion and consultations.”

Moreover, in a press statement on 31 July, 1947, Jinnah addressed to the Tribal Areas. He said:

“The Government of Pakistan has no desire whatsoever to interfere in any way with the traditional independence of the Tribal Areas. On the contrary, we feel as a Muslim State, we can always rely on the active support and sympathy of the tribes.”

At the conclusion of this statement, Jinnah chose to use the term ‘Islamic State’:

“In the end, I would appeal to all the different elements in the Frontier Province and in the Tribal Areas to forget past disputes and differences and join hands with the Government of Pakistan in setting up a truly democratic Islamic State.”

Since the first Martial Law by Ayub Khan, many rulers came and became a history – all with their unique set of incoherent ideologies. Mixture of civilian and military rule continued. However, Pakistan remained a testing laboratory for every ruler or dictator who would play with its original ideology and would manipulate it according to the so-called needs – mostly based on the de facto “doctrine of necessity” and the de facto “national interest”. The people of Pakistan, at the same time, have always paved a way for those new ideologies to get emerge each time they get bored or tired with the previous one.

The last one to come up with a new ideology was veteran president General Pervez Musharraf. He introduced “Enlightened Moderation” and attempted to promote it in Pakistan during his 9 years tenure of dictatorship. Musharraf has always quoted the example of Turkey and the Turkish revolutionary statesman Kemal Ataturk who gave Turkey a new ideology of secularism after the Ottoman Empire, which was said to be an Islamic Caliphate, was abolished.

Let’s come back to the favorite country of Musharraf as if in examples, the Turkey, where he once lived as a boy. The idea of military’s unaccountable power, in other words the sense of dictatorship while making decisions on his own, was once again swept up by Turkey. In Turkey, the military and establishment is said to be secular. Four times since 1960, the military, which views itself as the guardian of Turkey’s secular tradition, has overthrown civilian governments. And none of the plotter of the coup was punished until the AK party came into power. The military influence in politics was then diminished because of the strong civilian government lead by Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This goes for Musharraf – as well for those striving hard to keep country democratic and for those who endorse coup – again:

Few months back, that is in February, the court of Islamic-oriented government of Turkey has jailed seven senior military officers – including four admirals, an army general and two staff colonels. The officers, some of them are now retired, are charged with plotting in 2003 to topple the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Having said that Musharraf can follow the examples of Turkey in order to adopt secularism, the current government of Pakistan should now take a literal serious step in trying Musharraf just as the Turkey prosecuted and punished the servicemen who plotted to overthrow the Turkish government. Unfortunately, what we have seen so far is that the present civilian government of Pakistan has never took any step to try any of those servicemen  who even executed the coup, most recent Pervez Musharraf, and gave country the worst times it has ever seen.

What is the constitution of Pakistan for military dictators? Aren’t they the one who take oath on the name of Allah for they shall abide by the constitution? If oath-taking and fulfilling it has become so marginal and unholy, why do we still continue with the tradition of oath-taking ceremonies and the likes of it? Should not Pakistan cut the Gordian knot instead of making mockery of a constitution and oath by appending a new fresh clause to the constitution, which should state: “any breaching of the constitution under the pretext of ‘national interest’ and ‘doctrine of necessity’ shall not be considered treason. Military shall be allowed to practice the coup when needed.”

Who was Jinnah? Anyone remember him? To the armed forces, this man’s message was quite clear and well-defined briefly. On August 14^th 1947, he addressed the armed forces of nascent Pakistan, saying:

“Do not forget that the armed forces are the servants of the people and you do not make national policy; it is we, the civilians, who decide these issues and it is your duty to carry out these tasks with which you are entrusted.”

Jinnah left this message not only to the armed forces but also to the people of Pakistan. With this literacy rate and that poverty rate it is difficult for Pakistan to be democratic are the crippled rhetoric we have been listening for ages now. Not too far to go to seek an example. A country that lies on the east of Pakistan, truly our archenemy likewise, has the poverty rate bigger than Pakistan and literacy rate not as good that it cannot afford a single Martial Law.

Most recently, the MQM has vehemently announced that it will welcome the Martial Law by the “Patriotic Generals.” Well, endorsing to put Pakistan again under a new militarily based ideological test will really help Pakistan? When will this civilian-military ideological game show going to end? When will the civilians – including the political parties – are going to understand the fact that they are also worthy of ruling Pakistan? Only if they do it – ruling – with sincerity, keeping the principled politics its aim, and understand that we civilians do matter to the country, then Pakistan can avert the unwarranted and uncalled for military interventions, besides its influence, in the politics.

While we have good examples of other countries – like Turkey – to follow, and political guidelines and principles of Jinnah likewise, we are stick to our self-nurtured habits of creating our own unparalleled examples. And so, no wonder if we fall each time to the lowest regression because Pakistan remains to date a testing laboratory where each day and in each regime we experiment new lamentable things.

Conspiracy Theories And The Bilateral Process

The government is compelled to see people getting more infuriated, hawkish and extremist against countries like India, America or Israel.... Photo Courtesy: Express Tribune

Published at Express Tribune blog

Conspiracy theories in current times are adjusting to our youth. Have you ever wondered about the reasons that make conspiracy theories easily impact the minds of people? There are quite a number of reasons, the foremost being that many of us love fiction and mysteries, and another being a simple lack of education. But in Pakistan, perhaps the most important is the trust deficit between the people and the respective governmental institutions or the whole government machinery.

Conspiracy theories proliferating in society or a country reflect a bilateral connection between the respective government and its people – both hermetically connected to each other. How? Let’s take into account the case of Zaid Hamid. I’d not blame the stalwarts of Zaid Hamid who’re in these times following the hawkish ideologies of the man because, as I said, it’s a bilateral process. One needs to understand that the people of Pakistan are frustrated and provoked over the stalemate on most serious long-standing issues between India and Pakistan; for instance: water issue, Kashmir issue, unprovoked border forces fire from Indian side, the involvement of Indian security agencies in the affairs of Pakistan and so forth.

I’m not a supporter of Zaid Hamid, neither do I like his hawkish rhetoric and cliches. But then, I think Zaid Hamid doesn’t reflect both sides of the coin. One side of the coin is Zaid Hamid. The other side of the coin is the failed government. The government has failed to satisfy the needs of the people. And that government’s failure of not dealing with serious problems of Pakistan is leading to the ire in the youth against India.

In the same way, there are conspiracy theories regarding United States of America: the usage of Pakistani bases to perform the drone attacks assignment, which is killing many innocent Pakistanis; the role of American Intelligence Agencies in Pakistan including the abduction of Pakistanis by CIA and FBI; the Blackwater issue; the dubious role of America on Kashmir issue, the failure of American-led Nato forces in Afghanistan and so forth. Again, this all is leading to the ire in the people of Pakistan against United States of America. The reasons are quite valid given that 9 years of war has brought no convincing result until the present time.

In either case, conspiracy theories are evolved and adopted by the people because of the failure of the respective government which cannot grapple the issues. Or to state the matter differently, there’s a huge trust deficit between the people and the government because their voices and judgement and opinion are perennially overlooked by government.

I’m nowhere near to asserting the idea that the above mentioned reason is the “only” ingredient that helps in accommodating conspiracy theories in our judgments and opinions. But give me one reason why people shouldn’t fall prey to these conspiracy theories — the rhetoric and cliches of some media analysts, as it’s called — when government has critically failed to comply with the demands of the people, and as mentioned above too: like the water issue with India, Kashmir issue, illegal abduction of Pakistanis and so on.

People have the right to make choices too and they will make the choices “automatically” – and maybe at times the wrong choices – when the government feebly gives this impression that it’s reluctant to solve the problems people are facing perpetually. According to the previously mentioned scenario on the bilateral process with regards to conspiracy theories, there is only one solution:

government should pay careful attention to the sentiments and needs of the people. If not, the government will be witness to people getting more infuriated, hawkish and extremist against countries like India, America or Israel, when their voices are not given a careful consideration. Those people who strictly denounce the conspiracy theorists should also not blame the youths who fall prey to conspiracy theories, because the coin is always bi-facial — both faces different.

Leaders Of East And West

Parliament House Of Pakistan & The British House Of Commons

Today, I was seeing a few minutes video of Javed Chaudhry’s program “Kal Tak”. He always begins his program with a traditional prelude in regards with Pakistan. In that video, he was narrating an event which goes like that. In London, daily 30 million people travel in the London underground tube service. Among them are the MP’s as well who travel to Westminster station for the House of Commons. At the Westminster tube station, there sits a shoe polisher. Most of the MP’s travel in the tube for Westminster, and many of them, before going to the House of Commons, pay the shoe polisher 2 Pounds to polish their shoes. Once, few months back, the shoe polisher made a strange complain to one of the MP who stood their for shoe polishing. The shoe polisher said: former primeir Tony Blair, before going to the House of Commons, used to stop by at him for the shoe polishing. But since the Gordon Brown is premier, he (the shoe polisher) is missing something in his life. It’s that, Gordon Brown doesn’t stop by at him for shoe polishing. The shoe polisher asked that MP to extend his message to the premier Gordon Brown that he’s not happy with the premier. The MP just laughed and left. That day when Gordon Brown came to the House of Commons, that MP extended the words of the shoe polisher to him. Gordon Brown, after listening to the MP, laughed very hard. Gordon Brown disclosed that he has been polishing his shoes himself for the last 40 years. He further said, before leaving the 10 Downing Street and coming towards the House of Commons, he daily spends 3 minutes polishing his shoes.

Javed Chaudhry, while recalling this event, had no aim other than comparing it with our leaders, the Pakistani leaders. According to Javed Chaudhry, that MP himself narrated this event to him. I don’t know how much true Javed Chaudhry has been while recalling this particular event, but what I’m sure is that this could be the case, because of the reasons I’m going to explain.

It pulls me back to a time when I was having some personal problems and a friend suggested me to go see the MP of the constituency I was living in. I searched for the MP of my constituency on the website of Newcastle City council to know who he’s and how to book an appointment with him. I phoned the City Council and the lady apprized me that there’s no appointment procedure, you can visit without an appointment. This was the first thing interesting yet pleasantly surprising to me. I planned to pay a visit as soon as I could. Went to his office. MP was in his room. I was sitting in a small room on a chair where I hardly had to wait for 10 minutes because a visitor was already inside. A few minutes later, someone from inside MP’s room opened the door. The guy, who appeared on the door, at the first glance looked like to me a kind of MP’s assistant or someone who works at the office of MP. I said hello to him and he invited me into the room. I stepped in. After getting inside, he shook hands with me. I asked him that I wanted to see the MP. This was another surprise to me when he broke this secret (it was a secret to me until then) that he himself is the MP. I was awestruck for a jiffy as I wouldn’t believe the guy in simple clothes with simple appearance and great humility, which I acknowledged myself in first few seconds, could be the British Member of Parliament. He asked me to take a seat. While I sat, he asked me to explain what’s that I wanted to discuss. I explained to him the things I had for him in my mind. He carefully listened to every word I said and sometimes, in between my narration, he would ask me for more details where he felt he needs to add it to his knowledge too. To truncate it, I had a great conversation with him. I was feeling so relaxed and confident while I was talking to him, as he never put any negative impression on me of being proudy, flamboyant or any other kind of brag.

While I left his office, few questions kept nipping my mind for sometime. It was that: is he really the MP? Why did he look like he was a kind of office worker or maybe a jack because he didn’t appear to be in suit boot? Why he didn’t brag like the political leaders of my country frequently do? Why was his office not so full of lavishness and why was there no assistant? And why did I not have to wait, to see him, for longer minutes if not hours? These questions still nip my mind while I see the lavishness of our leaders — their protocol, their personal bank accounts, their big and number of houses in many cities in the country, their farm lands, their vast businesses, their nice and expensive more than one personal cars. Besides, the biggest of all things is the honestness missing in our politicians. Sometimes, do we not have to grease the palm of the influential people — the politicians, the MNA’s or MPA’s — to come out of the big problems or to have things done legally (by means of palm greasing) which couldn’t be done illegally or vice versa? Sad that we’re a nation of people who consider these things as a strict personal matter of leader’s life; we consider it secondary things while the unprincipled and amoral politics is people’s primary concern in the country and it’s endorsed substantially. I’ve to admit, and everyone does so as well, that why west has prospered. May Allah help us all, that we’re really not ready to help ourselves.

Of Future Dulha-Dulhan Hoopla

Something for a change. Well, I actually started to enjoy the wedding news of

Shoaib Malik And Sania Mirza Wedding

Shoaib Malik and Sania Mirza when I saw a banner on top of GEO’s website. This sure was looking quite funny at first glance. What it seems to me — or perhaps everyone else too — is that GEO is happy the most than any other Pakistani.

Since yesterday evening, when the news broke out, I started receiving text messages on this subject, and quite surprisingly it was the only one text which was being sent over and again: IPL ney to 11 Pakistanion ko Reject kia tha Faraz — Sania Mirza ney to Pora India hi Reject kar dia

The other comments I happened to read randomly were: Sania sister ney proof kar dia hai key “ik ho gey Muslim haram ki passbani key leye; Neel key sahil say ley kar tabkha’k'ghashgar…”

There was one another funny comment I read: Ab India hum sey hamesha sir jhuka kar baat kia krega … Kyun key hum Larkey Wale hain. GEO PAKISTANI

In any case, particularly the people in Pakistan are ambivalent. Picking another other random comment: Sania will keep representing India yet after the marriage & both of them are going to live in Dubai!

Let me have my say on this whole event: I usually have no interest in discussing such newses, but the humorous demonstration by GEO while covering this news made me laugh on this whole thing. News is perhaps interesting more, generally, because of the inherent inclusion of “India”.

What is your say?