From Pakistan
to Faujistan
By Ahmad Faruqui, PhD
Dansville, CA
For
the seventh year in a row, the nation observed
Pakistan Day under military rule. Pervez Musharraf
showed up at the Minar-e-Pakistan dressed in muftis
and spoke at what was in every sense of the term
a pre-election political rally. And there’s
the rub. While talking of democracy, the Army
continues to be sovereign.
On March 18, Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Sadaat symbolically
handed over the command of the PAF by giving his
sword to his successor, marking the completion
of his tenure. On the same day, the Army chief
whose tenure had run out in October 2001, showed
no sign of handing over his sword to his successor.
While speaking to the troops in Bahawalpur, General
Musharraf promised to give them state-of-the-art
weaponry so they would acquire a qualitative edge
over the non-existent external enemy.
At the Corps Headquarters, he was greeted with
generals that appeared over-burdened with medals
and ribbons. The Corps Commander pinned honorary
badges on Musharraf, who had shown exceptional
courage in visiting the town that had taken the
life of the last army chief-turned-president.
To prevent any recurrence, police and security
personnel had sealed off the entire city.
This somber military ceremony was in sharp contrast
to a joyous meeting that had taken place in Lahore
sixty-six years ago. The All India Muslim League
had passed a resolution calling for the creation
of a sovereign Muslim state. Seven years later,
Pakistan appeared on the map. Its very name exuded
the pureness of Iqbal’s ideology. In its
birth, there was not a hint that it was destined
to become a garrison state.
The beginnings were difficult, since the new state
lacked an industrial infrastructure and crucial
military supplies. But that did not keep it from
going to war with India within two months of independence.
The war sapped Pakistan’s financial resources
but still did not go well. It was in progress
while the Quaid passed away on September 11, 1948.
A UN-sponsored ceasefire fell into place three
months later.
This unfinished war gave the Pakistan army a mandate
from which it would not retreat, that of wresting
Kashmir from India. This goal was conferred on
the army by the civilian leadership, since it
regarded Kashmir as the unfinished legacy of partition
and a symbol of Pakistan’s identity.
The leaders dreamed that Kashmiris would rise
one day against the Indian occupiers, obviating
the need for the Pakistan army to take on the
much larger Indian army. India at that time was
three to four times bigger in size, in addition
to being largely militarily self-sufficient. So
defense spending was accorded priority over all
other heads of spending.
But the task was difficult. In 1951, Prime Minister
Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated. After an air
crash killed the two senior-most generals in the
Army, Ayub Khan was appointed as the first Pakistani
commander-in-chief. Later, a former bureaucrat
who had assumed the post of Governor General illegally
dismissed the civilian government. This was a
coup that was carried out with the army’s
concurrence. Like the tiger in Jim Corbett’s
hunting classics that gets his first taste of
human flesh and becomes a man-eater for life,
the army had gotten its first taste of politics
and would not let go.
Ayub was inducted as defense minister while in
uniform and given complete autonomy in determining
defense policy. Since so much of Pakistan’s
foreign policy was centered on Kashmir, which
would only be acquired through military means,
the Army’s influence spilled over into foreign
policy. The timing was auspicious since the Cold
War was at its peak, with the Soviets having exploded
their first H-bomb in 1953. Soon thereafter Pakistan
entered into several defense agreements with the
US and was able to modernize its military, especially
the Army and Air Force, at American expense. Now,
the generals thought, they could hold India at
bay while fomenting an insurgency in Kashmir.
Even then, the arrival of Faujistan could have
been avoided, had the military-bureaucracy complex
allowed parliament to function on the adoption
of a constitution in 1956. However, finding its
corporate interests threatened by civilian interference,
the army seized the reins of power in October
1958. The flag of Faujistan had been hoisted.
After a few good years, Ayub’ rule degenerated
into cronyism and racism. The cracks surfaced
in the presidential elections of 1964, when widespread
voter fraud resulted in the surprising defeat
of the Quaid’s sister. Ayub’s failure
to acquire Kashmir in the war of September 1965
unleashed forces that he could not reign in. Disaster
ensued just as he began to celebrate his Decade
of Development.
Promising free and fair elections, General Yahya
pushed Ayub aside and became a caretaker president.
Elections were held as promised but power was
not transferred to the legislature. On March 26,
1971, the army unleashed a crackdown in the eastern
province the like of which had not been witnessed
in the sub-continent since the days of Nadir Shah.
The ensuring civil war resulted in the breakup
of the country. Jinnah’s Pakistan passed
into history.
As the military commander in the east was surrendering
his sword, the mournful words of “Jiyae
Pakistan” (Long Live Pakistan) were wafting
over the airwaves in the west. These words carried
much pathos in them, even more than the words
of “Jaag raha hay Pakistan (Pakistan lies
awake)” that were being broadcast by Radio
Pakistan when a ceasefire was declared at the
end of the war of September 1965.
A few democratic interludes took place in the
Pakistan that emerged after the December 1971
war but the army continued to reign supreme. Each
civilian prime minister lived at the mercy of
the army chief, forced to fund an increasingly
larger army. Faujistan had now arrived and Pakistan
perished.
Under General Musharraf, the army’s national
footprint has become even larger in size than
just the size of the armed forces would suggest.
The Jack Boot has trampled every important civilian
institution and appropriated it, guaranteeing
life-long employment to army officers. In addition,
generals have been granted public lands at throwaway
prices and benefited from large-scale kickbacks
from arms dealers.
Musharraf has now thrown caution to the wind.
His personality cult is reminiscent of Ayub’s
in his final years. Larger-than-life portraits
of him line the streets of Islamabad as he welcomes
the Saudi King or the American President. PTV’s
Khabar Nama could well be re-named as Musharraf
Nama. Not surprisingly, last October, while talking
about the earthquake, an American visitor made
an inadvertent reference to Musharrafabad on PTV.
Can anyone blame him for this Freudian slip?
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