Politics’ obsession of the military

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Pakistani politics has for long been de-tracked and lost in pursuit of its impulse than purpose. It has been adequately assisted by an elitist fringe of the civil society and select part of the media which hinges its eminence around daring the military, already touted a demon. Sure, there is a history to revert to which gets invoked by every ‘libertarian wizard’ quoting how the politicians were badly done by the four military dictators. This neatly diverts attention away from the failure of politics to equip and purpose itself differently. The past overrides the present and pollutes the future even as it provides politics a cover to hide behind against widespread allegations and perceptions of mis-governance and plunder of national resource. All this while failing to deliver to and for the people. What engenders is a perpetual war of shifting blame and pedaling narratives. The politics is reduced to a caricature.

Terms, such as powers-that-be, the-all-powerful, mahekma-e-zaraat, khalai makhlooq, the khakis, and what not including symbolic pointing to the shoulders to indicate shoulder-badges on military uniforms by all and sundry meant to demean and belittle the country’s military is now a custom. Where the ‘all powerful’ is also reduced to a caricature in competitive denigration any bickering of a denial of freedoms of expression and those attached to the media or the vocal segments of society is patently misplaced and self-serving. Perhaps, direct abuse of those still in uniform will be next. It may have already begun under different garbs though. Hybrid war? Perhaps. But who cares. There isn’t a bigger spectacle than this on our media today. The ‘all-powerful’ absorbs the slander and resorts to legal remedies usually without effect.

Scruples are only an unnecessary bother in this unrelenting narrative building against the military. What do they want to achieve is anyone’s guess. Whose bidding they do is open to interpretation. Who benefits from such abuse is pretty obvious: politicians think they do in domestic jousting, but the enemies of the state relish such defamation impacting military’s war-fighting capacity without as much as firing a shot. Nations preserve their military’s strength; ours whittles away at it with unconcealed venom. Democracy has widespread responsibility of the state and of the nation. The military, the judiciary or any other arm of the state which politicians perceive may hinder their tribalist agenda is instead targeted at will. They pedal democracy as a ruse but fail to give meaning to it. In such diabolism both the state and the nation continue to weaken in a fratricidal war. The lows that we have touched reflect such distortions in our political and societal make-up.

When Karachi went under water in recent rains with absolutely no relief from any quarter the PPP came under ruthless scrutiny. Clearly Karachi has been plundered and abused for last some decades by every government, mostly emanating from rural Sindh. There is a whole history to it, and with the dilution of the MQM as its principal player — Karachi’s boon as well as bane as equal opportunity plunderers — she was left devoid of ownership or resource despite its criticality to the national economic make-up. Over time its myriad problems have blown into fantastic failures in governance and administrative focus. It thus floods repeatedly every monsoon in a sign of the city collapsing around itself. Some smart political ingenuity though found ways to divert attention away from these municipal and governance failures to other institutions; principally DHA and the Cantonments, areas considered administratively under the army or quasi-military control. They had been ravaged equally badly, of course. The entire country and the media took after it. This is when the military replaced the PPP under the spotlight and the blame successfully shifted. The residents of these localities are people of privileged means compared to those who inhabit the narrow alleys and congested high-rises in the densest portions which is most of Karachi, yet it were the DHA and the Clifton types that made the spectacle on the evening television when protesting against the nation’s military.

It wasn’t the number of people affected in a city of over 20 million, it was the area spread (40:60) under the control of these quasi-military installations which got pedaled instead in a narrative of comparative failures. DHA surely is and will need to answer its inhabitants but by a fascinating stretch of imagination even the Clifton residents centred on the Cantonment Board trading abuses against the President Cantonment Board — an army figure. It is an honorary position; the executive of the Cantonment Board is a bureaucrat but who has the time for such niceties. It made an impressive scene hounding after the military by the citizenry at large. The images reinforced a perception of a people fighting for their rights against a dominating military. Those opposed to the military as an existential nemesis and the politicians of our country given to a competitive existence with the military relished such derogation.

A retired general’s story on assets is making the rounds at the same time. What is sadder is how a judge or his family being investigated on similar charges is being mirrored by a comparable bevy. Each needs to be investigated into and dealt with per law, without exception — the credibility of the state and its inherent resilience to withstand buffets of multi-directional assault by inimical forces is at stake. What is injurious are the imputations of genuine impropriety offered to be traded in institutional quid pro quo as the argument takes shape. Our history reinforces the possibility of such ‘adjustment’ between members belonging to powerful segments of the state and the society. Such perceptions only deepen fissures engendering fracas bordering on internal chaos. Who does this to one’s country? What is worse is how politicians tag on to it for petty gains. Politics becomes patently tribal and self-serving and loses its purpose. The circus is unending.

In the long view this nation egged on by some unscrupulous cheer-leaders and their cohorts is on a self-destruct path. How can these ruptures be ever repaired boggles common sense. If the state and its institutions are being staked for leverage it only foretells of the inevitable melt-down of the country. How can the new breed of leadership in the political dynasties take pride in what is being proffered by them as politics. It is self-serving and populist. The media thrives in this confrontation especially against the ‘all-powerful’, whether maligning NAB or in appearance before a court which turns the heat a few notches up or in public discourse. Populist and purposeless politics. We must inculcate a cognizable matrix of delivery to judge our politics and its worth. This should be the mantra of our new political leadership. We need inscrutable honesty in the service of the state and the people by the new generation. That alone can recover from this incoherence and chaos. We are being egged by the wrong people in the wrong direction. The new breed of politicians should do differently and better or there is no hope.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2020.

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