This should be very simple to answer, i.e any policy or plan is worth little more than the piece of paper it is written on. What invests such a plan with value is the worth of the person who is to implement it. The most brilliant policy in the hands of an idiot or a thief will remain either stillborn or will be subverted to the cause of plunder. In the hands of a committed executive, even a middling one will yield dazzling results.
Without Leslie Hore-Belisha [ and Capt. B.H. Liddel Hart, whom he recruited as advisor when the army would not have him] Britain would have entered the Second World War on horses rather than tanks.
But for his position of primacy at the Mughal Court, without Bairam Khan, the Mughals would have been little more than a footnote in history.
Had the great Marcus Aurelius not made Commodus his heir, probably the dynasty would have lasted longer, and the disastrous “year of the five emperors”, avoided.
But for General Kazim Karabekir to whom orders were sent to arrest Ataturk and send him back to Istanbul, had another General been in command at Erzurum, the history of Turkey would most certainly have been different. It was Kazim who decided that Turkey needed Ataturk to fight and live again.
History is often the story of men. Men chosen by fate or by other men to execute a task. Hannibal at Cannae called his most trusted General and asked him to make a list of 5000 men who had the same qualities as the latter, to be posted at the wings for the ensuing battle. The General told him he could hardly name twenty such men. When these twenty were called, Hannibal asked each of them to name another twenty like themselves. He repeated this exercise till he had his five thousand. The battle depended on the wings not giving way and raged for four hours. The largest Roman army of the day was completely routed and utterly destroyed. Of the 80000 Roman soldiers sent in battle, 70000 were killed. Ever since that day, replicating Cannae has been the dream of every General to have dreamt of battlefield glory.
Hannibal’s is a story of battle. But that of General Has von Seeckt, who was commander of the German Army for six years post-Versailles, is one of resuscitating a destroyed army and building it back for future war.
The Treaty of Versailles limited the German Army strength to 100,000 men, only 4000 of whom could be officers. Von Seeckt personally selected each man and officer from the ranks of a defeated and demoralized army, many from the ranks of the demobilized. The quality of the men he selected was such that even when this hard core was diluted a hundred times by its rapid expansion, the Army which Germany fielded in the Second World War was way out superior to all the rest.
Pakistan’s situation today insofar as bankruptcy and demoralization is concerned, can be compared in some measure to that of the Germany of the 1920s–though of course Germany was in a much worse condition. But within a decade Germany shrugged off its ashes, and rose again. It did so on the basis of people that were selected, whether they were selected for the nascent army, civil administration, or the economy. From taking money in wheelbarrows to buy a loaf of bread, in just ten years Germany had the best army in the world and became the strongest economy in Europe!
This happened because though Germany was destroyed, and its people were dying of hunger because of the blockade imposed on it, it nevertheless had untold wealth in its human capital. It is this that was identified and then marshaled to the cause of rebuilding the country from its ruins.
It has now been three and a half years since I have been writing about the bankruptcy that awaited us, unless the plunder was brought to a stop. What I wrote was directed at the army high command. I was pleading with them, that as guardians of national security, they should see the plunder of the national treasury as the foremost national security issue and knock at the doors of the Supreme Court to stop the rot that was besetting Pakistan. I know that all my articles were reaching the then Army Chief. But I also know that the subject was never discussed in the rarefied heights where generals sit and talk national security. Today I think over this and seethe. And I think that not all broad chests have within them a heart which has space for courage!
The bankruptcy I so feared is here. We are sitting on it. And the next to come is inflation. This will be a terrifying experience. Every second month salaries will have to be raised. Huge destabilization will come in its wake, and crime and tragedy will follow.
It is time that the PM, the CJ, and the Army Chief discuss the possibilities of what lies ahead. Pakistan has never been in such a dire situation before.
The state and its institutions have been overwhelmed by unmitigated crime. It is about time to see this. And if there are eyes to see, it will be readily seen, that at no other time was the imposition of an emergency so badly needed, as it is today. Waiting will make the situation only worse.
That done, dredge out the proven human capital from wherever it lies hidden. Go to the ranks of the retired and draft every man and woman of proven ability and integrity to the cause of the resuscitation of the tottering state. And then get back the looted wealth. Stop treating criminals, who are also traitors to the cause of the country, like delicate nubiles. Treat them like criminals ought to be treated, and see how willing they will be to give back the fruit of their depredations.
The PM was correct in trying to bolster the morale of our civil servants in his recent address. But he should make a clear distinction between those who facilitated plunder by their bosses and also helped themselves generously while doing so, and those who took professional decisions that went wrong. The former have to be tried and jailed, and the latter rehabilitated. He should immediately revisit the promotion boards which trashed the honest and the able, and promoted the “loyal” and the corrupt. He should set this straight. He should rehabilitate the many who were thrown out just because they were more loyal to the state than to those who were ravishing it.
The PM must know that time is not on his side or Pakistan’s. If he wants to improve the administration, he must get people who leave no room for speculation and are the PROVEN BEST. Whether they are in service or retired, it should not matter. And it should not matter if they are from the armed services or from police and civil services. What matters only is certainty about their quality.
He should follow von Seeckt’s formula i.e the very best are to be taken. Does not matter if they are serving or are retired.
The PM’s aim should be to hand over an area of vital national interest to an officer who has a proven track record. No speculation should be allowed on this score. The aim should be to put proven officers and then let them make mistakes. That does not matter, because their previous records of service will stand alibi for them—that their mistakes were not motivated through ill-intent.
He should cover all important bases with officers who, once put in charge, can reasonably be expected to deliver the goods. One by one each such slot should be filled, so that the PM can then be free to move on to address other issues.
For example, he should get from ranks of the retired the best man as chief secretary Punjab, and then for the other provinces. Similarly, he should find the best man for the FBR; for the petroleum ministry for the State Bank etc etc—for each such area which requires high ability and proven integrity. He should know that our police and civil services have suffered carnage. Only people can rebuild these institutions. But he does not have enough of them. So he must go to wherever they are available and call on their patriotism to volunteer their services to Pakistan. He must draft them on contract.
And he should begin with NAB. Raising the economic lot of the people will take years. Good administration can come a little earlier. But accountability is needed NOW. It is this that can get back stolen wealth which could considerably ease the situation Pakistan is in. This will also help shore up his credibility, which is already under attack.
And within NAB, he should order the trial of the PGA, who seems to have deliberately lost the case defending NAB court judgement against Nawaz Sharif and party in the High Court. And let him not overlook the sterling services rendered by Qamar Zaman Chaudhary to the cause of high crimes against the state and the prostitution of the accountability process.
The PM should realize that at present Pakistan’s only potential asset is its stolen wealth. This asset he must retrieve. For this he needs men and women of uncommon dedication. Unlike the Germany of the 1920s, we do not have too many such people, but we have enough. They should be found and used. This is the single most important decision the PM will have to take.