General’s far away from the cheering crowds

Benazir Bhutto

Pakistan's military dictator decided this month to seek the country’s presidency through a referendum. An Election Commission judge resigned protesting that the referendum on April 30 was unconstitutional. The Pakistan Bar Association, the Pakistani press and political parties called it unconstitutional too. And despite using public funds to benefit his campaign, the General found the rent a crowd chillingly indifferent to him.

When he seized power in October 1999, General Musharraf made many promises. He promised to end the victimisation of political opponents, crack down on militancy, end corruption, revive the economy and transfer power to the people through a road map to democracy. He was unable to deliver on those promises despite a tenure as long as the political leaders he is fond of criticising.

Under Musharraf’s watch as army chief and chief executive, Islamabad twice found itself at the brink of a potential nuclear war with India. Domestically militants grew in strength, killing doctors, gunning down worshippers in a Protestant Church and a Rawalpindi mosque, tossing grenades in Lahore and brutally murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The General’s coddling of the Taliban, who harboured the al Qaeda, led to the killing of innocents in America and the resultant bombing of Afghanistan.

Despite international financial largesse, national revenues remained low. Embarrassingly, revenues were 14 % of GDP as opposed to 18 % in 1996, under his political rival. Growth was lower too, half of the six % in 1996. Investment was pitiable. The corruption drive foundered on the rock of political necessity. Those convicted by courts were freed on ‘‘humanitarian grounds’’. Those without convictions continue facing the politically motivated iron fist of the regime. Corruption cases filed by the Opposition against Musharraf’s ministers remain unattended. The democratic leaders’ practice of inviting tenders for contracts was done away with in selected cases.

The General then decided to pass a law to benefit himself. Not satisfied with the expensive house at public expense he took as army chief, he declared he deserved an additional state funded expensive house as president. He twice doubled his salary in three years whilst poverty rates in the country increased.

Little wonder that the General was unable to excite the crowds.

To ensure that the General won the referendum, it was decided to do away with electoral lists, independent observers and polling agents to watch the cast of votes. It was also decided to have mobile polling stations in place of regular polling stations.

The General said he was having the referendum because he did not believe in ‘‘sharing power’’. He campaigned in army fatigues with army generals sitting on the stage. His speeches spared the religious parties that supported militancy. His goal was discrediting democratic leaders to the benefit of the militants he swore to control. It seemed he was contesting against the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party although she has little interest in the Pakistani presidency having declared her candidature for the premiership.

The General’s personality driven politics found him drawing lines in the sand between those that supported him and those that refused. Had he taken off the army uniform, his could be the only vote in his corner. Far wiser was it to draw lines on Pakistan’s future direction as a state dedicated to building peace in the neighbourhood and prosperity for its impoverished people. The Opposition, sensing blood, called for a boycott of the referendum. It asked Musharraf to hand power to the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice if less than 50 % of the people turned out to vote. This the General declined to do, confirming suspicions that he was less confident of truly winning than he publicly declared.

The referendum mess polarises Pakistani society at a time when the international campaign against terrorism enters a dangerous new phase. The arrest of al Qaeda militant Abu Zubayda in the Pakistani heartland of Punjab shows that al Qaeda members could either be hiding in Pakistan or have passed through it. Simultaneously, the Middle East is on fire, fuelling Muslim anger.

Indian and Pakistani troops continue pointing guns and missiles at each other across their borders. Were the Indo-Pak border to flare up at this time, the world could face a big mess. General Musharraf may gamble that the international support he currently enjoys makes him the West’s best bet. But if he ends up polarising Pakistani society at this critical juncture, he could turn out to be its worst nightmare.

Presently Pakistan’s national and provincial assemblies are abolished. The elected President has been sacked, the Constitution suspended. Political parties are persecuted and leaders face state sponsored perversion of justice. Political activities are banned — except for those who support the dictatorship.

The state of democracy and human rights in Pakistan is similar today to what it was 20 years ago under General Zia ul Haq. He used Pakistan’s critical importance to the United States in Afghanistan as a smokescreen for his own dictatorship. Now General Musharraf, contradicting Pakistan’s written constitution, has announced a referendum to extend his military dictatorship by five years, irrespective of subsequent election results.

Unless the people of Pakistan are empowered, a blowback in Afghanistan could become the prelude to a more horrific blowback in neighbouring, nuclear Pakistan. The stakes are high, the implications great. Democracies don’t start wars, just as they don’t protect militancy. Democracies, operating under public constraints, consider the country more than an army battalion and the people more than subordinates to command. If General Musharraf wishes to be part of the country’s democratic future, he should seek election in accordance with the constitution.

A wise general knows when to retreat. And this General already retreated unilaterally from Kargil’s difficult peaks in spring 1999 when India and Pakistan nearly went to war. It’s time for him to retreat again in the face of Pakistani public opinion.