Can any Pakistani honestly imagine Pakistan holding together without its army? I do not know of any who can answer this question in the affirmative, and the implications of this are devastating. Essentially this means that every major institution of the country is non-functional; that the political establishment has steadily lost credibility to the point where the citizen now sees it as being anti-state and is no longer vested in the state; and that but for the discipline and cohesion in our army, we would have been another Iraq–a chilling thought, if there ever was one.
So, who is responsible for fixing the dysfunctional institutions which together constitute the state?
This duty obviously rests with the parliamentarians, more so those who sit on government benches.
But will they fix these shortcomings?
No, they will not.
But why not?
The answer should be quite clear. Functioning institutions get practically translated into the rule of law. And people whose primary motivation is power, the longevity of it, the looting of the wealth of the nation, and doing it with total impunity and guaranteed immunity, cannot abide a functioning judiciary, police, and bureaucracy. They cannot abide it because these institutions, if fully functional, are impediments in the very way of the motivating impulse of the rulers, and so these institutions instead of being improved, must be further whittled down and destroyed.
It is this motivation to gain and hold on to power, and plunder with immunity which has given a lie to the theory that more and frequently held elections will put the system back on the rails. Our practical experience shows that in the wake of each election the viciousness of the attacks on these institutions has only increased. And as these institutions have progressively eroded, so have the foundations of the state. And in direct proportion to this erosion, there has been an increase in the wealth of those at the helm of affairs.
The mother of all our ills, in which are rooted all the others, is corruption, particularly corruption in high places, mega corruption, and unless this is forcefully countered, the country does not stand a chance of survival.
Economically hollowed out, ravaged by multiple insurgencies, and with rabid self-interest masquerading as governance, the tottering state of Pakistan was recently thrown a lifeline by the Chinese. Should their investment come in, and the planned economic corridor becomes functional on ground, we may breathe a new life. We may even turn a corner and start making progress in various fields.
But will this happen?
The sad answer must be “no”.
Not a penny from the Chinese will come in till the law and order situation is first brought under control, and the police and judiciary become substantially more functional. And following this, the bureaucracy, which will have to implement plans on the ground, will have to be culled and reformed in order to be made effective.
And none of this is about to happen precisely because those who have progressively destroyed these institutions with total commitment to this destruction, will have to muster twice the commitment to turn things back in the opposite direction. And such about-faces happen only in fairy tales.
So, who in Pakistan has the power to turn things around sufficiently so that Pakistan will get a chance to use the lifeline thrown out by the Chinese promise?
The answer is clear: it is the army, the only major functional institution of Pakistan, who can use its power and present credibility to lean on the rulers to make the desired changes, to depoliticize and reform the police, and to delink the bureaucracy from the politicians to make it independent, by statutory guarantees, so that these institutions have at least half a chance to deliver.
But the army can only make suggestions. At best it can make these suggestions with urgency, anger, and exasperation. But no more. Going beyond that will be violative of the constitution.
And here lies the Dilemma of Pakistan: the leaders of the country have wrought a situation where the people must make a choice between the constitution and their country. The interests and survival of the country stand in opposition to the practical functioning of the constitution. The constitution today stands as an alibi for the most powerful criminals of the land who are taking the country to the cleaners. But to survive, the country has no choice but to get rid of those to whom the constitution is providing this alibi. Yet in the total absence of the rule of law, these criminals and the constitution are so joined at the hip that in order to bring these criminals within the ambit of the law, the constitution will have to be violated. There simply is no other choice.