www.sacw.net - 19 August 2007


PAKISTAN NEEDS REAL DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT

Rather than prop up Musharraf, the world must demand that Pakistan's army give up control of the government and vast sectors of the economy.

by Zia Mian* (This article was published earlier in Philadephia Enquirer, 17 August 2007)

On the 60th anniversary of independence, Pakistan is under siege. Its leaders lack legitimacy, politics is held hostage by its army, and radical Islamists stalk the land. The future looks bleak. There is talk of civil war.

There is only one way out: End the cycle of military dictatorship and allow truly free, representative government to take root.

Pakistan's leaders have failed it from the beginning. Its founding father, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, claimed the Muslims of British India needed a separate country if they were to be free from domination by its more numerous Hindus. He cast a wide net, offering orthodox Muslims a vision of an Islamic society and more secular Muslims a dream of a country where religion was no business of government. This ambiguous legacy and the terrible religious violence that accompanied the partition of British India have haunted Pakistan ever since.

Jinnah died within a year of independence. Politics became a personal power grab, with seven prime ministers in the first 10 years and then, in 1958, a military coup. The decade of army rule brought a close military alliance with the United States, further strengthening the army, and the forced modernization of a poor rural society. The costs were war with India, wrenching social change, and grievous inequality. Eventually, the people rose in revolt. In 1971, East Pakistan broke free and became Bangladesh.

The army relinquished power. But the new civilian leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, lacked a democratic temper and treated opposition as threat. He established Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and a practice of buying public support by appeasing the mullahs.

In 1977, the army took back control and executed Bhutto. In his decade in power, Gen. Zia ul-Haq sought to Islamize Pakistan. He introduced religious laws, courts, and taxes, supported radical Islamist madrassas (seminaries) and political parties, and altered school textbooks to promote a conservative Islamic nationalism. Work on the bomb proceeded apace.

The United States turned a blind eye to the dictatorship and the bomb. It poured billions of dollars into Pakistan to buy support for a war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Islamic militants from around the world were trained and armed by the Pakistan army, with American money, and sent across the border to fight godless communism. The jihad was born.

Zia was killed in a mysterious plane crash in 1988, and the Soviet Union admitted defeat and left Afghanistan. Elections were held, only to have the army become the power behind the throne. The new crop of leaders, including Bhutto's daughter, Benazir, descended into corruption and intrigue, each seeking the army's help to take office. There were nine prime ministers in 10 years. Some actively courted the mullahs; none tried to undo the Islamic order created by Zia. As one third of Pakistanis fell below the poverty line, Pakistan tested nuclear weapons and missiles and went to war with India. Both sides hurled nuclear threats.

There were few protests when the army, led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, seized power again in 1999. He promised that "the armed forces have no intention to stay in charge longer than is absolutely necessary to pave the way for true democracy to flourish." Instead, he rigged elections and made a deal with Islamist political parties willing to support him as president.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the United States gave Musharraf no choice but to join another American war. Money poured in (more than $10 billion so far), and U.S. demands for a return to democracy fell silent. Musharraf consolidated military rule. Generals rule provinces, run government ministries, administer universities, and manage national companies. The army's business interests now span banking and insurance, cement and fertilizer, electricity and sugar, corn and corn flakes. Inequality has grown.

But Pakistan is being torn apart by an Islamic militancy that rejects Musharraf's alliance with America. Militants have attacked soldiers, policemen, local officials, ordinary people, and national leaders, including Musharraf himself. Suicide bombings have claimed hundreds of lives across the country. The army has struggled to respond. Many soldiers resent fighting their own people in what they see as an American war against Islam.

Islamist fighters have taken over whole villages. Emulating the Taliban, they repress women, close girls' schools, attack DVD and music shops, destroy TVs, and demand that men grow beards and go to the mosque. The movement is spreading. For six months, Islamist students and fighters occupied a mosque in Islamabad and set up their own court. The government sat idly until forced to act by national and international pressure. The bloody storming of the "Red Mosque" in July served only to fuel the militancy and enrage public opinion.

The outside world appears threatening, too. The United States warns of al-Qaeda and Taliban havens in Pakistan; some politicians talk openly about the possibility of a U.S.-led attack on Pakistani soil. The United States fears Pakistan's nuclear weapons may fall into the hands of Islamists. America is cultivating a new strategic relationship with India, causing fears among Pakistan's army leaders of losing ground in its nuclear and missile arms race with India.

Some hope that restoring a semblance of democracy could turn the tide against the Islamists and reduce the nuclear danger. Musharraf, with U.S. help, is trying to cobble together a deal to stay in power, dumping his Islamist allies for support from Benazir Bhutto, who would be allowed to return from exile, cleared of the corruption charges she fled. These steps will not be enough.

Pakistan needs to break its cycle of military rule and puppet politicians for democracy to take root and flourish. Rather than keeping Musharraf in power, the world must demand that Pakistan's army yield control over government and economy once and for all. Only a freely elected and representative government that can make decisions can pursue economic development as if people mattered, confront the Islamists, and make peace with India.

[* Zia Mian directs the Project on Peace and Security in South Asia at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs]

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