Pakistan Needs
Restructuring, Not Elections
By Ahmed Quraishi
Islamabad, Pakistan
There
is a reason why you can’t find better alternatives
when talking about a post-Musharraf Pakistan.
Pakistani political parties never developed into
viable institutions capable of generating leadership.
And you can’t blame this one on the Pakistani
military.
Talented emerging politicians like Babar Awan
of Benazir Bhutto’s PPP, Ahsan Iqbal of
Nawaz Sharif’s PML, and Tariq Azim of the
ruling coalition, stand no chance of occupying
their party top slots. In this elitist political
system, party office is a lifetime prerogative
passed from father to son.
The choices available today to Pakistanis are
illustrative of this fact: A corrupt and failed
Benazir Bhutto, an inefficient and myopic Nawaz
Sharif, and between them a dozen or so political
leaders with no real universal appeal. None of
them is willing to make way for fresh leadership
to emerge.
Pervez Musharraf was and remains a good choice
for the country. He has good ideas for reforming
Pakistan and has been able to partially implement
some of them in the past eight years.
But where he made some successes in foreign policy
and the economy, Musharraf has so far failed in
using his immense powers, backed by the powerful
Pakistani military institution, in redesigning
the failed Pakistani political system.
Multiple power centers at the top have made the
system unstable, resulting in perennial power
fights over the past six decades. The current
power struggle in Pakistan is probably one of
the ugliest manifestations of this damaged system.
This time the domestic infighting is sending the
wrong signals abroad. The Indians have been emboldened
to strengthen their claim to disputed territories,
and the Americans are openly interfering in domestic
Pakistani politics. Anyone, frankly, would be
stupid not to exploit our problems.
Musharraf promised to reform and strengthen the
system. His Russian friend and counterpart, Vladimir
Putin, promised the same thing to the Russians
and he delivered. The Pakistani strongman, however,
made a mess of his political reforms, and now
has almost reneged on an important element –
weeding out corruption from Pakistani politics.
This would have required some autocratic actions,
maybe even Martial Law. Amazingly, Musharraf appears
to be joining hands with utterly hopeless politicians
under Washington’s prodding. So in a way,
the US is becoming a cause for perpetuating Pakistan’s
failed politics, to the dismay of many Pakistanis.
There are deep structural and constitutional problems
within Pakistani politics that necessitate the
presence of Pakistani military in civil affairs
for the time being. Only the military can help
break the choking grip of wealthy, autocratic
feudal politicians. The military is very much
part of the transition to democracy. And this
transition has to be slow and calibrated.
The military has been part of the problem because
it has been encouraging the monopoly of a handful
of politicians in the country, perpetuating a
troubled system and never encouraging its replacement
with a better one.
Musharraf’s seven-point agenda was probably
the freshest idea to come from the military in
a long time. After all, it is useless to stand
guard on the nation’s borders when failed
politics are eating the country from the inside.
The Pakistani military has not been a perfect
administrator of the country. But it has certainly
been a good administrator. Under a military-led
government for the past eight years, Pakistan
has expanded the freedoms of choice and expression
in civil liberties. There is hardly any example
of a free and independent media across the Middle
East that matches the lively Pakistani media under
the current military-led government in Islamabad.
The economic turnaround has been impressive. Pakistan
today is ranked 76th by the World Bank in terms
of ease of doing business, way ahead of India,
for example, at 120th.
This does not mean that a permanent military-led
government is the answer for Pakistan. What it
means is that the military has a role in reforming
Pakistani politics. And it must embrace this role
as a strategic objective. The reforms must be
permanent and the end goal is a full democracy
with clearly laid rules of the game.
Pakistan today needs restructuring and remodeling
more than anything else. Elections are an unnecessary
distraction. They will satisfy the international
community but, going by past experience, will
push Pakistan into more political controversies.
The unfortunate thing is that President Musharraf
failed to introduce any real political reform
apart from the two ideas of creating a National
Security Council and introducing the local government
system.
Both are good ideas but: One, they could be rolled
back once President Musharraf is out; and Two,
these two steps are not enough. Pakistan’s
strong military institution must use its influence
to introduce the following five drastic changes
to the country’s political system:
CHANGE THE CONSTITUTION. President Musharraf must
challenge our decaying politics by giving the
nation a fresh constitution. Around 1,000 people
– that’s the estimated strength of
the present Pakistani political class –
will create some noise. But two-thirds of Pakistanis
are below 30 years of age. To them, future is
more important than the past. The existing constitution
creates conflict, doesn’t reflect ground
realities, and cripples Pakistan’s potential
as a rising power.
A STRONG PRESIDENCY. Executive power must be strengthened
and expanded if we want to see a strong federal
government in Islamabad. This means axing the
current parliamentary system. Gen. Musharraf must
bolster his position by introducing a presidential
form of democracy. This structural change cannot
be made permanent without a strong presidency.
A Pakistani president must have the power to appoint
likeminded professionals in federal offices. We
can benefit from the American and French democratic
models in this regard.
MORE PROVINCES. We need to move beyond the current
four provinces to at least a dozen or more, with
more local governments. This will improve governance,
create new local leaderships, weaken linguistic-
and ethnic-based politics, and – most importantly
– strengthen Pakistani nationalism.
A TWO-PARTY SYSTEM. Stability will continue to
elude Pakistan without introducing something close
to a two-party system – possibly Pakistan
Muslim League [PML] on the right and Pakistan
People’s Party [PPP] on the left –
alternating power, with a half dozen smaller parties
tipping the scale on the sidelines.
REFORMING POLITICAL PARTIES. The Election Commission
of Pakistan must introduce the requirement of
a verifiable, free and secret ballot for the top
slots within Pakistani political parties as a
precondition to contesting general elections.
This will rid us of stagnating lifetime party
leaderships, giving a larger number of Pakistanis
a chance to serve the public and pave the way
for a better class of politicians to emerge.
Some would say that President Musharraf could
have brought these drastic changes during his
eight years as a powerful army chief and president.
There’s little chance of him pushing such
an ambitious agenda now when he is on his way
out.
It’s true that it would have been good if
he could retain the command of the armed forces
in order to ensure continuity in his role as the
author of the new system.
But that is secondary. This cannot be a one-man
agenda. What is more important is that the Pakistani
military leadership sponsors this entire reforms
program and makes it a strategic objective, regardless
of change of command.
And let’s not worry too much about building
political consensus. It would be good if it happens
but it’s near impossible to achieve. Pakistani
politics are so divisive today that our politicians
are incapable of seeing a good idea even if it
hit them smack in the face.
(This column is partially based on the author’s
contribution to a roundtable discussion organized
by the International Affairs Forum (www.IA-Forum.org
), part of the U.S.-based Center for International
Relations. )
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