July 04, 2008
Pakistan’s Fledgling Government Fumbles, Falters and Flounders
Over the past four months, the elected coalition government of Pakistan has expended time in the internecine strife for power or in the pursuit of obtuse issues –if not non-issues- far removed from the immediate concerns of the common man. Would the reinstatement of the sacked judges, he might wonder, reduce the prices of roti and other essential commodities, make potable water easily available, ensure law and order, and enhance the supply of electricity to make his fan run to provide some relief from the sizzling summer heat. To him it is almost immaterial if a judge is of the PCO variety or not. If an injustice has been done to him, would it be cheaper and quicker for him to seek redress if the court is headed by a non-PCO judge?
Unfortunately, governance in Pakistan has fallen into the hands of a bunch of flawed figures who are evidently unable to steer the ship of state clear of their personal agendas and towards providing the electorate some credible hope of their legitimate aspirations being fulfilled within a reasonable time frame.
Nawaz Sharif, for instance, withdrew his minister from the federal cabinet, without withdrawing totally from the coalition, when the PPP-led government did not reinstate the sacked judges within the first 100 days as demanded by him. He wanted to settle scores with Musharraf through the sacked judges of the Supreme Court. How much respect he really had for the apex court may be judged from the fact that his party men stormed that very court to intimidate the then Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah when he refused to kowtow to the wishes of prime minister Sharif.
Fact of the matter is that the nascent government is still trying to find its moorings. One has to make an allowance for that, as the eight-year earlier rule by diktat had put under anesthesia political parties, leaders and institutions. The government had become dysfunctional with major wings of the government suffering from institutional paralysis. Not only that, we have now at the helm persons who had remained for years in exile or behind bars. One luminary in particular –Asif Ali Zardari- has been able to grab the mantel of Benazir in a manner somewhat open to question, and lure into his corner potential opposition leaders. He may lack the political and intellectual caliber of his wife, but he excels in maneuvering people to his line of thinking and his ambitions. Right now his top priority appears to be the occupation of the Presidency.
Regrettably, Pakistan will remain a leaderless state drifting like a rudderless ship, till a civilian leader of the requisite caliber emerges on the scene, galvanizes political forces and gives them a sense of direction.
Several Pakistani and foreign papers, including the New York Time, have pointed out this phenomenon. “Pakistan is in a leaderless drift”, commented a dispatch in the NY Times of June 24. The problem is most acute, it maintained, when it comes to dealing with militants in the tribal areas that “have become home to the Taliban and Al Qaeda”. Their rhetoric and illusions of glory have turned their fanaticism into a movement inspiring blind faith, single-hearted allegiance and a readiness to die for the cause -holy or perverted. There were 56 suicide bombings in 2007. The spate continues into the current year.
Emboldened by the weaknesses of the nascent federal and provincial governments, the insurgents in the tribal belt and Swat district have consolidated their hold, under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud and Maulana Fazlullah, and started knocking at the gates of Peshawar. Meanwhile, on the Afghan side of the border, Taliban militants launched a sophisticated assault on Kandhar prison and released 870 inmates including some 400 Taliban. The Afghan President took out on Pakistan his frustration over his government’s inability to thwart the assault by accusing Pakistan of providing sanctuaries to the rebels and going for the first time to the extent of threatening to attack the rebels on Pakistan territory. One may make an allowance for his ludicrous tantrum only when one takes into account the fact that he had recently escaped an assassination attempt on his life by the fanatics.
The menace of extremism has permeated the tribal areas, Swat and the border lands between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has burned down girls schools, music shops, a motel in Swat and even publicly executed, in a most revolting and gruesome manner, two young men suspected of spying for the United States. The armed zealots, pursuing an obscurantist agenda, have been committing horrific crimes on the pretext of enforcing Islamic laws! They have on the slightest pretext violated the peace deals they had entered into with the authorities. Appeasement of a monster doesn’t halt its appetite and demand for more. Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of the Nazis was a disastrous failure.
