Some questions lending themselves to avid debate on various TV channels are: is the government firmly committed to the Karachi operation; are the government and the army firmly on the same page in this; what is the logical conclusion of the Karachi operation; and how how long will the war on militancy last, etc. etc.
Let us try and answer these questions by going back to the beginning. Without doing so, it will be impossible to come to the correct answers to these questions.
This constant skepticism about the interrelationship between the army and civil authorities is rooted in the history of the country. The army has throughout played the role of the hesitant rescuer who came in to stay for dinner, and then took over the house and brought disgrace to itself in the process. This situation was sought to be remedied by the so-called Charter of Democracy, of which only two unwritten clauses have been followed by both Zardari and Nawaz Sharif i.e. that each will have unfettered license to govern, without hindrance by the other, while keeping the army firmly in its place; and, neither party will cause hindrance in loot and plunder by the other. This understanding knocked out the key safeguard of accountability, or any fear of it, from the “democratic” dispensation inflicted on the people, with total support from the Chief Justice, who had little love lost for the army.
From then onwards it was to be total dictatorship by either of the two main political parties of the country, without any check or impediment. And this is what precisely happened. For five years this country was “democratically” looted, plundered, and raped. At the helm was a President, two Prime Ministers, a leader of a “friendly” opposition, a Chief Justice, and an Army Chief, all of whom were the very paragons of corruption–sellouts who had no check on mega thieves, working as if in partnership with them to destroy our country, our hopes, and all that we hold sacred.
And they kept calling this democracy, and we kept lapping it up. The logic was that because they were elected by the people, all they did was therefore kosher. Their apologists trotted out the standard mantra to justify their egregious conduct i.e. because democracy was never allowed a free run, how could one expect it to suddenly come and deliver. No one ever challenged these apologists, or the perpetrators themselves, to explain what compulsion, except greed, drove them to rob and pillage their country. After all one can understand why democracy was not running quite as smoothly as in countries where it has had an extended run; but how come this becomes an excuse for the leaders to commit theft–this has nothing whatever to do with democracy or dictatorship. This has to do with integrity and moral values which one learns at home from one’s parents, not through the “democratic” process. Thus if there has to be an appropriate alibi for the corruption of our leaders, democracy’s imperfect run cannot be cited for it. Instead, it would be much more plausible to say that these unfortunates were raised in houses of ill-repute where their parents did not teach them any better.
And then they went a step further. They amended the constitution in a manner that the interim governments between elections and the election commissions were so crafted, that elections could be rigged without challenge, thus ensuring that this political leadership would become the bane of the country in a partnership in perpetuity. And thus our kids would groan under unrestrained inequities–and their kids, and their kids, will remain serfs to the members of the ruling houses. Talk of over-weening ambition and raging appetites!!
When Nawaz Sharif took the baton from Zardari, to take his turn to run the country into the ground, unfortunately for him, his field marshal syndrome immediately kicked up. Doubly assured that he was dealing with a defanged and discredited army, the incentive was great for him to lock horns with it. And this is what he did. He already had had election alliances with the terrorists in the past, so that there should be peace in Punjab while Pakistan could go to hell. Thus he decided on a policy of “negotiations” with the terrorists hoping to charm them into surrender, while soldiers and their officers were being killed by them with impunity. And it was during this time that the Hamid Mir Incident took place and he and his ministers openly sided with the TV channel, whose policy it clearly was to denigrate the army. No businessman will ever have as policy anything that hurts his profits, unless he has assurances to the contrary. Thus there was little doubt among the army officers and men that GEO TV had the total backing of the Nawaz government in its campaign to run down the Pakistan army.
And then came the terrorist attack at Karachi Airport, and Gen Raheel Sharif and the Generals decided enough was enough, merely informed the government, and ordered the operation in FATA. And Nawaz Sharif, from being all powerful, suddenly slumped to the status of a puppet. All the safeguards Nawaz Sharif and Zardari had erected against the army, were against an army take over by a discredited army. Secure in this belief, he had no defense against an army, led by a popular commander, which would limit itself to just filling the national security void left by his vacillation. To compound his problem, Nawaz Sharif had no idea how much discredit his “Mughliya” style of governance and free booting had already heaped upon him, his family, and his party. And the vengeance with which the army took on the terrorists was equaled by the loathing which they nourished for him for having aligned himself with GEO in denigrating it.
And then comes APS Peshawar, and the massacre of our children. The conduct of Gen Raheel and his generals in the wake of this epic tragedy became a foil against which we hear that the government was negotiating an infamous LNG deal, and that in one year Rs 485 billion had flown the country to be converted into Dubai properties, and that the government had virtually ceased to exist, beyond luncheons and dinners to buy and sell legislators in the senate elections.
The last nail in the head of the credibility of the politicians has been driven by the revelations coming in the wake of the Ranger operations in Karachi.
Will this operation be successful? I have no doubt whatsoever that it will be hugely successful, as long as it is across the board, is conducted without fear or favour, does not lose momentum, picks up all the big fish that fall into its net as a result of interrogation of the small hoods, and as long as the army does not get seduced into taking over. Gen Raheel must certainly know by now that he is the most popular man in Pakistan by far. But I wonder if he is cognizant of why this is so. In my view it is thus for two simple reasons: in a state of hopelessness and general panic when there is one person in the room who keeps his wits and poise about him, all the rest will gravitate towards him; and secondly because this is a rare experience for Pakistanis when there is a person who can take whatever he wants, but appears to show that his ambition is not for himself, but for them and his country.
Such being the public perception, Gen Raheel must do nothing to disturb this equation.
The bloody and tyrannical stranglehold of Altaf Hussain on Karachi is coming to an end. Soon, as Umair Baloch is repatriated to Pakistan, or one of the other PPP hired killers is netted, there will surface proof that the murders of Murtaza Bhutto and Benazir were ordered by the same man, and the rule of the biggest don of the country will come to an end and we will be rid of his stench. But before that, in all probability, there will be need for governor’s rule in Karachi. And the army must push for this, and then push for the best bureaucrats and police officers to be emplaced, rake the cesspool clean of the refuse masquerading as politicians, and give to Sind the best and the fairest elections it has ever had.
Will the government support the army in all this? The answer lies in my preamble. This government is headed by hoodlums who have no great love for Pakistan beyond the fact that this is the only country they can loot with impunity and take the looted wealth to London. If they are now supporting the army in all its various crackdowns, does anyone think it is on principle? Can a family do this in whose book there is only one Principle and that is the one that they obtain from the banks? The army must never forget that this family is in prone position only because their legs have given way and genetically their behinds are most at ease when facing the pole star. These are the sort of people one should not trust their dog with, much less the country. The astronomical bulge in their assets after political power came to them speaks most eloquently of their first love, at the altar of which everything sacred can be sacrificed.
The logical extension of the operation in Karachi has to be one in the Punjab, when time and troops permit. And when Malik Ishaque is picked up and interrogated, and there will be plenty more, the time will come for governor’s rule in the Punjab as well. And we may finally be rid of the primary blood-sucking family of the province.
If crime has to be curbed, and concentration of effort is to be limited to the little rats, not much will be achieved. The fat cats have to be the ultimate objective. This has not been possible thus far because the army generals taking over in the past saw the fat cats as ultimate partners in facilitating their metamorphoses into political democrats. The present situation in Pakistan is entirely novel. It is the first time in our history that the army is basically exercising total power, and if they took over they will be hailed as saviors, and yet they are not doing so. This is where their credibility lies, and they should not do anything to undermine this credibility. If they can stay back, clean the sludge of Pakistani politics as evidence comes into their hands, and do so with integrity and honesty, they will have done what very few committed groups of men have done for their people. They will have given to their people a new chance and a fresh hope. What more is worth doing in one lifetime.
P.S. The war the army is fighting will be a long war. A very long war. It will have to be a war against three distinct groups, who may be related and overlapping. It has to be war to crush terrorists who blow themselves; terrorists who don’t blow themselves up, but will blow you up; and the economic terrorists who will blow the whole country up if they can rake in the profits from the debris. This latter is the class that is ruling Pakistan and is the most lethal. Unless they can be eliminated, the little rats do not matter. Therefore, it is an absolute MUST that mega corruption is declared to be a national security imperative by the army.