Democracy vs. Military Adventurism in Pakistan
By Syed Osman Sher
Mississauga, Canada
Pakistan had inherited the dreams of its founding fathers to have a democratic setup but, unfortunately, it has intermittently been a prey of military adventurism. The result is that democracy could not find a foothold there. Disgusted, the lovers of democracy advocate that howsoever badly the elected politicians fared, the ethics of political science warrants the continuation of the democratic process. Theoretically speaking, for them, the system of democracy has a built-in self-cleaning system whereby it would start functioning in a glorifying manner in due course. Unquestionably, it is a truism, and Pakistan should not be an exception to this maxim.
However, Pakistan as a country stands exceptionally alone in this regard, a kind of its own. It has a feature very different from other countries. Here, barring some urban centers, the bulk of its land is under the ownership of jagirdars, waderas, and sirdars. Therefore, under democratic elections they alone become the winners of the majority of seats in the Parliament. Generations have passed, but in this democratic mill only they have ascended to the pedestal of power. The history of its sixty-five years of existence has clearly demonstrated this trend. Still, we see no evil in this scheme of things, provided they have the will to govern in the interest of the country and its people. Being the lord of their massive land holdings, they mistreat the cultivators of their lands, remain unconcerned with their basic comforts of life, never allow them the facility of education, do not wish them progress in life, and only aim for their serfs to pass lives in perpetual servitude to them. Such an attitude does not allow them naturally to posses a democratic or people-oriented mindset. Democratic governance, country’s progress, and people’s welfare remain only a far cry. These representatives of the people only hold the banner of democracy high, without intending to practice it. In such a situation, it would only be a dream that the self-cleaning force of democracy would come to play in Pakistan.
The mechanism of election that makes them every time the undisputed winners has also created in them a sense of non-accountability before the electorate. Undaunted, they have now acquired an odious trait of robbing the country of its resources. Facts abound about presidents, prime ministers, ministers, and elected representatives receiving bribes and kickbacks, and obtaining loans of millions of rupees from nationalized banks without repaying them. Encouraged by them, and trickling downward, the whole society of Pakistan has now been fully soaked in corruption.
In his book ‘Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money’, which has come out recently, Raymond W Baker discusses the cases of corruption of Benazir Bhutto, Zardari and Nawaz Sharif. I quote below only one of the cases for discussion here, because of having the personal experience thereof.
Quote: “The Pakistan government’s largest source of revenues is customs duties, and therefore evasion of duties is a national pastime. Isn’t there some way to tap into this major income stream, pretending to fight customs corruption and getting rich at the same time? Of course; we can hire a reputable (or disreputable, as the case may be) inspection company, have the government pay the company about a one percent fee to do price checking on imports, and get multimillion-dollar bribes paid to us upon award of the contracts. Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS), headquartered in Switzerland, and its then subsidiary Cotecna, the biggest group in the inspection business, readily agreed to this subterfuge. Letters in 1994 promised “consultancy fees,” meaning kickbacks, of 6 percent and 3 percent to two British Virgin Island (BVI) companies, Bomer Finances Inc. and Nassam Overseas Inc., controlled by Bhutto and Zardari. Payments of $12 million were made to Swiss bank accounts of the BVI companies. SGS allegedly has paid kickbacks on other inspection contracts around the world. Upon being accused in the inspection kickback scheme, Bhutto sniffed, “I ran the government to the best of my honest ability. And I did it for nothing but acknowledgment and love.” Unquote.
This was not the first time that Société Générale de Surveillance had presented this proposal to the Government. They had sent it earlier to Gen. Zia ul Haq in 1987 or 1988 when Dr. Mahbubul Haq was the Minister of Commerce. The proposal came for examination in the Ministry of Commerce, where I was working as Chief/Economic Consultant (International Trade). The findings were that the scheme would not serve the interests of the country. The Minister of Commerce submitted it to the President. With the President’s approval, the proposal of Société Générale de Surveillance was rejected. Fortunately, in this episode no politician was involved: Dr. Mahbubul Haq was an ex-bureaucrat, and Gen. Zia was a military man. After Zia came the period of democratic politicians, and with them also came the deluge of corruption.
However, in no way the lesson derived from the above is that civil or army bureaucracy is above corruption or military rule is better in Pakistan, but that Pakistan is the captive of corruption by virtue of its democracy.
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