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Inviting patriotic generals
Altaf Hussain’s call to patriotic generals to take martial law type action on key civilian fronts refuses to die down.
The writer is based in Lahore and is a former chief economist of the Planning Commission pervez.tahir@tribune.com.pk
Despite media attention to spot-fixing and devastating floods, the controversy ignited by MQM Quaid Altaf Hussain’s call to patriotic generals to take martial law type action on some key civilian fronts refuses to die down. The proposed regime is supposed to accomplish three things: sound the death-knell for feudalism, root out corruption and ensure economic and political stability. How an extra- constitutional arrangement will achieve what the constitutional governance cannot has been spelt out neither by the leader nor in the justificatory statements of the followers. Apparently, the reference is to weak governance and lack of will, as well as capacity to effect change hurting well-entrenched vested interests. The fact, however, is that the country has seen four martial law regimes, with their effectiveness on the three most important governance-related issues: feudalism, corruption and stability, subject to diminishing returns.
Take the case of feudalism. Drastic land reform would be a good solution. The first martial law regime of Ayub Khan made an effort. However, the ceiling on ownership was too high and the exceptions and exemptions too generous. Largely, the land resumed was uncultivable waste and its distribution was painfully slow and mostly unjust. Any loss suffered by the feudals was made more than good by substantial subsidies granted under the so-called green revolution. In short, the great might of the generals could not break the back of feudalism. The martial law regime of Yahya Khan took no position on feudalism. In sharp contrast, the martial law regime of Ziaul Haq took a strong position against land reform. Its major innovation, the Shariat Court, declared land reform un-Islamic. This put a stopper on the implementation of land reform introduced by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977, which had brought the ceiling on ownership from Ayub Khan’s 500 acres down to 100 acres. Musharraf’s was closest to a martial law-type regime. The MQM was an important part of it. Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a feudal handpicked to head the civilian façade of the government, made only one qaum say khitab. The only reference made to the economy was a rather proud assertion that no land reform would ever take place. Not surprising, the military during this period itself became the biggest landlord, ever ready to quell tenant revolts on its farms.
Next on the proposed agenda of reform is corruption. Ayub Khan’s take on corruption was to banish from public life luminaries like Hussain Shaheed Suharwardy and settling scores with some senior civil servants. The famous twenty-two families included his own as well. Yahya Khan’s corruption was of a different kind. Ziaul Haq turned the use of state resources for political and personal gains into an art form. Musharraf’s regime used NAB with impunity to achieve political objectives. The horrific stories of massive corruption are only beginning to surface. The use of the military and its allied organisations for implementing the public sector development programme without following the Pakistan Procurement Rules added a new dimension to the military procurements.
Stability, economic and political, is the last item on the menu of the martial law-type regime. There may have been stability under all martial law regimes, but only while they lasted. Their exits, however, are marked by total chaos. Ayub left behind huge economic and social disarray. Yahya left a Pakistan more truncated than in 1947 and the economy in a shambles. Zia’s legacy includes drugs, the Kalashnikov culture, extremism and intolerance. The economic fundamentals were so out of place that the country had to approach the IMF. The great economic miracle of the Musharraf period was more statistical than real. The regime ended by handing over the economy to the IMF.
There is thus no evidence to suggest that a martial law type arrangement can rid the country of feudalism, corruption and instability.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2010.
Reader Comments (21)
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History isnt the barometer here, for the MQM and other parties who know how to manipulate power, calling to the army is not only seen as the right thing to do, but also a correct reading of the disparity and disillusionment faced by the people is evidence of there manoeuvring for every possible eventuality. I.e, to remain relevant regardless of who wields power. Though at the end of the day rule in uniform or rule from the sidelines, all pretty much equate to the same thing.Recommend
Generals should redefine army’s role by becoming guaranteers of fair elections and should only troubleshoot the extreme blunders threatening national security.. The current dynamics will would themselves lead to change. Democracy is our only hope. That’s the wheel of governance we have reinvented over and over again.Recommend
Okay so now we know that military rule has not given us anything. I am assuming that Dr Tahir is going to follow-up this article by another one elucidating the wonderful things the civilian democratic governments have given Pakistan during their turn in power, starting with democracy.
The failure to build democracy and civilian rule in Pakistan in the last 63 years is the joint consequence of the army’s ambitions and self-regard, and the politicians venality, incompetence, and general disregard for building effective institutions, and if they won’t do it, who will?
To blame the army solely while ignoring the failings of the politicians is like blaming earthquake deaths solely on plate tectonics and ignoring the role of shoddy construction. It was a duet, not a solo performance.Recommend
But Sir, never before had Pakistan faced such a devastating situation caused by floods, lack of trust (aid/loans) and the political foresight of rehabilitation vs. apparent corruption? Things need to change, or this regime will be remembered for worse than any of the past Martial Law’s. One needs to roam around the streets of the country to understand what the 20m displaced want for this country.Recommend
Your article seems imbalanced. You focused more on feudalism and less on corruption and stability. You did not tell us what Altaf Hussain meant by ‘patriotic generals’ and why did Altaf select this time for his call? By the way, where do you place Altaf in this ‘patriot generals’ and ‘corrupt politicians’ equation?Recommend
It would have been much more meanignful and insightful if the writer had thrown some light on what civilian / democratic governments did to end feuadalism, corruption and ensure economic stability, with specific emphasis on the steps taken by the present government.Recommend
1st think, who can you say that “he” is patriotic general and “he” is not.
second, Silence of pPp govt shows that they may also have link with altaf hussain statement so that they can hide their failure in flood issue,.Recommend
Pervez Sb, you are very much entitled to not agree with anyone else’s suggestion and have an opinion of your own. However, do you have a better alternative? please do not even begin to think about suggesting the 100 year long solution of shamocracy, as this is no time to be philosophical and idealistic, this is the time to be pragmatic and to lead the nation out of the rotten and stinking state by actively participating in soon to become a popular movement.Recommend
“The great economic miracle of the Musharraf period was more statistical than real. The regime ended by handing over the economy to the IMF.” May be you were not in Pakistan between 2000-2007. The economy was “handed over” to IMF by Musharraf or by the elected democratic government which didnt have a proper Finance Minister for the first 6 months. If the economy was to be handed over to IMF by the General and his team, why bother pre-paying their loan in 2004. Stop spreading liesRecommend
pervez:
i see altaf hussain’s call as a trial balloon for the bangladesh model
judging by the vitriol from the usual suspects and support from unexpected quarters, one can see there is grudging acceptance of the core truth:
if someone has a better proposal to tackle these core afflictions they should also publicly come out with it
whining, posturing, and waiting for a messiah sounds like the death bell for the state as it exists todayRecommend
The aim of Altaf Hussain in making that call to the army was to gain cheap popularity by posing himself as the leader of the down trodden.The army job is to defend the borders and it cannot be expected to solve problems like feudalism and corruption because the constitution assigns no such role to the army.The need of the hour is to bring the army under civilian control and make it accountable to the parliament.Unless this is done conditions in Pakistan would keep deteriorating.Altaf should better control the militant wing of his party and restore peace in Karachi instead of worrying about corruption and feudalism.Recommend
Lower inflation rates, higher investments, higher FDI, stability and consistency have been the hallmarks of every army regime. Compare that to the circus that the politicians have entertained us with while siphoning away our wealth. As far as corruption goes, yes, a few generals may be corrupt, but how many can possibly be corrupt, and how much corruption do the generals dare? Compare that with the thousands of politicians that sell our future and stash the money in western countries on a daily basis.
Ayub gave pakistan the only significant industrialization the country has ever seen. Zia gave stable low inflation. Mush years showed lower poverty and inflation than its successors. And please dont give me the ‘we are now seeing the negatives’. Negative reprecussions of the previous government are something that the army regimes had to deal with as well. Ayub had to deal with the lack of planning and action that 6 democracies in 6 years showed, Zia had to deal with Bhutto’s blunder of socialism, nationalization and insane labor laws, and Musharraf had to deal with the holes that 4 see-saw governments full of corruption made in the national wealth.
Sorry Sir, but I expected better, much better. You must be the only economist in Pakistan to think that the economy did worse under the martial law regimes of the army as compared to the dictatorial regimes of the politicians.Recommend
Completely agree with Patriot and Atiq Rehman.Recommend
The aim of Altaf Hussain in making that call to the army was to gain cheap popularity by posing himself as the leader of the down trodden.The army job is to defend the borders and it cannot be expected to solve problems like feudalism and corruption because the constitution assigns no such role to the army.The need of the hour is to bring the army under civilian control and make it accountable to the parliament.Unless this is done conditions in Pakistan would keep deteriorating.Recommend
MQM’s call for army is laughable. Best thing would have been to ignore it.
Pervaiz Musharraf handed over the economy to IMF by following all its conditionalities even though he claimed to have severed ties with IMF. One can see this from IMF reports praising government policies of cutting subsidies and thus making Pakistan a grave yard of imported things. Statistics given by Musharraf government were, for example, 10 Crore mobile phones and none of them made in Pakistan. Due to this, statistics were showing 7% growth but in reality Pakistan’s budget deficit jumped to $20 Billion per YEAR. Even if we stop all the corruption in country, no one can bridge that per year gap with $20 Billion that Musharraf created.
Democracy we have is not ideal. In fact it is quite depressing. Just wait two more years and let people decide. If people choose them again, it is their option. If we have someone disrupting current government, it’ll be very bad for Pakistan because dictators only waste time. Patriot Musharraf wasted our 8 years and then made Zardari & Sharif zero meter through NRO.
We would like to see our politicians go through a process and die down. Rather than a dictator making them all fresh after wasting a decade.Recommend
We lost East Pakistan, Siachen, large part of Kashmir (to China), part of Balochistan (to Iran) & Kargil because of our patriot generals.
We gained Gawader because of a civilian prime minister. Most of the time our country was ruled by Martial law. Blame for our failures should also be assigned accordingly. If a civilian is corrupt, the generals who ‘forgave’ that corruption through NRO is a bigger corrupt.Recommend
We lost East Pakistan, Siachen, large part of Kashmir (to China), part of Balochistan (to Iran) & Kargil because of our patriot generals.
We gained Gawader because of a civilian prime minister. Most of the time our country was ruled by Martial law. Blame for our failures should also be assigned accordingly. If a civilian is corrupt, the generals who ‘forgave’ that corruption through NRO is a bigger corrupt.Recommend
MQM’s call for army is laughable. Best thing would have been to ignore it.
Pervaiz Musharraf handed over the economy to IMF by following all its conditionalities even though he claimed to have severed ties with IMF. One can see this from IMF reports praising government policies of cutting subsidies and thus making Pakistan a grave yard of imported things. Statistics given by Musharraf government were, for example, 10 Crore mobile phones and none of them made in Pakistan. Due to this, statistics were showing 7% growth but in reality Pakistan’s budget deficit jumped to $20 Billion per YEAR. Even if we stop all the corruption in country, no one can bridge that per year gap with $20 Billion that Musharraf created.
Democracy we have is not ideal. In fact it is quite depressing. Just wait two more years and let people decide. If people choose them again, it is their option. If we have someone disrupting current government, it’ll be very bad for Pakistan because dictators only waste time. Patriot Musharraf wasted our 8 years and then made Zardari & Sharif zero meter through NRO.
We would like to see our politicians go through a process and die down. Rather than a dictator making them all fresh after wasting a decadeRecommend
No Sir, no philosophy anymore. We need Musharraf back. We enjoyed Musharraf era and now democracy is taking revenge from us. Please stop asking people to give more time to non sense democracy. We ask for change not tomorrow but today.Recommend
would you please differentiate between Pervez Musharraf’s regime and present one. Give us a balance sheet and convince with figures and factsRecommend
Personally, as Musharraf said, I am also admirer of Democracy but not the democracy which is in Pakistan.
if MQM is calling for Army why there is no protest within the country across the provinces? Why only politicians are SHOUTING..? Why? Only because these politicians’ DUKANDARI will be shut off.
Do a survey about this government and ask the people what they want… don’t just spit out and mislead the people.Recommend