Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely!
Pakistan came into being after a bloody partition of the Indian sub continent, but the sacrifices were made to provide Muslims of India with a country where they could freely pursue economic, political, religious and cultural freedom and development, free from the tyranny of the majority of the Hindu.
Yet, not only has the Federation failed to evolve for itself a stable system of government, it has also failed to provide people with their basic rights such as right to economic opportunity. Fixing a broken governance structure is the key to Pakistan’s mammoth problems, which has not just marginalized people of one province, ethnicity or sect, but has actually made lives miserable for the poor and the downtrodden of every cast and creed.
The breakdown of Pakistan’s governance structure is a consequence of a history of political instability, resulting in the stifling of economic and human development of the people. A country where the powerful are themselves locked in their own struggle for survival public service is the last thing on their minds. It is this mindset that has led to the downward spiral of a country which was predicted to become the centre of economic activity in South Asia during the 1960s, but failed to.
The early demise of democracy and the relative success of the first military dictatorship to provide the country with a shred of stability led to a perpetual mistrust for democracy as an apathetic battle for power among corrupt politicians. But as they say, power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. None of the military rules could prove themselves viable as in their quest for legitimacy and popular support they gave in to the forces of the dark and gave up their agenda.
But the cycle of military dictatorship and democratic governments has now taken roots in the political system. This is because the military has installed itself as the most powerful state institution, which not only controls defense, but also forms the foreign policy and has large stakes in the economy. At the same time, the bureaucracy has established itself as the regent for struggling elected governments, and now probably have more say in the governance than people’s representatives. Hence this nexus is given the name of civil-military establishment.
It so happens that in their ridiculously long periods in power, the military interests seep into the bureaucracy and forge an alliance that is hard to break once democratic powers are given way. Already in a nascent state, democratic forces are strained between the public they’re accountable to and the demands of the establishment. Since fighting the establishment is hardly an option, these so called elected governments give in to the corruption demanded by establishment’s interests. That is where the crises of legitimacy takes another life: a ruling party marred with corruption allegations tries to mend its ways, but a cleaning of the house only victimizes the establishment and it uses its judicial and executive influence to throw out the government.
Hence the democratic process fails to take root, and the public continues to distrust rule of politicians either bickering among themselves or shooting in their feet.
It is this self defeating attitude of the politics that has lead to the dismal state of affairs in Pakistan, and unless they’re looked into, the cancer will continue to eat away the nation.
ON SPIES AND SUBTERFUGE
Recently, a story on Pakistan’s spymaster agency, the ISI, has been making waves in the blogosphere. It has been rated World’s best intelligence agency by www.smashinglists.com , leaving CIA, MOSSAD and MI-6 scrambling.
But rather than discussing the credentials of the website, let’s take the claim on face-value: that the ISI has to its credit crumbling the former superpower Soviet Union into pieces and no on camera defectors. Although these claims alone could be harshly scrutinized, let’s just weigh them against its admitted failures.
On the external front, ISI has been blamed for the botched military operations against India; namely Operation Gibraltar of 1965 War and the Kargil War of 1999. ISI also planned and led the failed 1989 Battle of Jalalabad, with intent of installing a pro Pakistan radical militant group in Afghanistan. And the fifteen year long attempt to stir armed uprising in Indian held Kashmir, with no fruits.
On the internal front, ISI is one of the few agencies in the world to have carried out killings of its own people. The failure to outdo rebel Mukti Bahani sabotage and the reprisal killings of Bengali civilians in the 1971 Civil War, extra judicial killings of ethnic Balochs in 20 years of armed conflict (intermittent) in Balochistan, 5 years of military operations against ethnic Mohajirs in Karachi, and last but not the least, the failure to contain the rise of religious terrorism, failure to provide security in public life against the ominous threat of suicide bombing, and the classic case of Lal Masjid uprising right under ISI’s nose.
Among the agencies rated by the website, ISI is the only one retaining a “political cell” with an official intent of keeping an eye on anti federation elements (read politicians). Far from debating the merits of a security agency meddling into politics, the potential of such cell being misused by those in power is massive.
With such credentials, one can’t help but think of alternate explanations: “a ‘failed’ publicity stint by a ‘failed agency,’” makes sense.
WHY THE NEW ROUND OF MIDDLE EAST PEACE TALKS WILL FAIL?
In 1972, Richard Nixon’s visit to Chairman Mao was the defining event of Cold War which led to China’s entry into Security Council and made it one of the key players of global politics. It was also under his administration that U.S.-Soviet relationship was able to adopt the policy of détente. But this was no sign of softness towards communism; rather, it was a manifestation that the task of reestablishing normal diplomatic relationships with enemy always falls to its lifelong basher, in this case Nixon – whose anti communist credentials no one could question.
The latest episode in Middle East peace talks is a display of the same principle; you can handicap a weak rival temporarily, but you can never wriggle your motive out of him. Resumption of peace talks in absence of Israel’s willingness to make any concessions to a politically weak Palestinian govt. (which by the way is known to be pro Israel) will only aggravate the situation for the ruling Fatah group. Israel’s insistence on continuing construction of Jewish settlements in West Bank has helped paint Hamas as the only hope of Palestinians in their struggle for survival. Every time Israel coerces the Fatah govt. into a compromise, it strengthens the hands of the very group it has worked so hard to declare as terrorists.
It is not rocket science to suggest that no solution to the Palestinian issue can materialize into reality unless the hardliners such as Hamas are taken on board. When Palestinian homes are bulldozed in West Bank, Hamas jumps on the opportunity by championing the cause of homeless while the Fatah moderates stand aside like silent spectators. If Israel wants to demonstrate the seriousness of its efforts, it should at least “pretend” to talk to those who are perceived as its real enemy, not to those who are seen as its accomplice in oppression.
“LIES, DAMN LIES.”
“War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength”
- George Orwell, 1984.
The recent abominable bombing of a Shiite rally in Quetta, left around sixty peaceful protesters dead. The attacks on Shiites in Pakistan have historically been a work of radical Sunni militant groups, and go back to decades of sectarian rivalry between the two groups. But the apparently “mindless” retaliatory banning of Baloch freedom movement outfits by the govt. embodies its ulterior motives: that is, to blame religious violence by its own proxies-went-rogue on Baloch freedom fighters, and use it as an excuse to renew its War against Balochs.
It is worth mentioning that the Pashtun Shiite community of Quetta is an ardent supporter of Pakistani state. That the target killings of various Baloch human rights activists and nationalist politicians like Habib Jalib in recent months have been claimed by previously unknown groups like Al-Ansar Mujahideen and Sipah-e-Shohada-e-Balochistan, death squads with names that invoke religion and remind us of similarly named ISI backed “jihadists” in Indian held Kashmir. That these proxies later went rogue, like Jaish e Muhammad which played a part in the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, and began to undermine state agenda is part of our history. That history may be repeating itself in Balochistan is not out of question.
For a very long time establishment of Pakistan has waged a propaganda war against Baloch nationalist outfits by banning newspapers, online blogs and websites, and abducting journalists for reporting State brutality. But the latest strategy of hijacking Baloch freedom movement by blaming it for sectarian violence is despicable and exposes State’s agenda of denying people of Balochistan their basic right to freedom – no matter if it comes at the cost of killing its own supporters.
