The military and the Karachi situation

Army can’t pull off something that the civilians can’t, is right in staying away from the political morass in Karachi.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remarked during the honourable Court’s suo motu hearings in Karachi on September 8 that it was conditions like those prevailing in Karachi that had a way of leading to military takeovers in the country. He said: “The men in uniform have always used a breakdown in law and order to send a democratic government packing. We have closed the door on military intervention; but at the same time, democracy has to deliver while adhering to the Constitution.”

The Court had been requested by a lawyer on behalf of the Baloch Ittehad Tehreek to call in the army to control the law and order situation in Karachi. The answer he got was an indirect reference to the Supreme Court’s verdict against a military takeover through martial law by General Musharraf in 2007. This verdict overrode the earlier verdict that had endorsed the takeover by General Musharraf in 1999. If the politicians have forgotten that legal milestone, the Supreme Court has not; or cannot. General Musharraf’s overthrow of the PML-N government was acclaimed by the opposition politicians and thereafter a civilian-military mix of governance ruled over the country. The Kargil misadventure, carried out by an army chief without the complete consent of a prime minister ruling with a two-thirds majority in parliament, was forgotten. The Supreme Court, earlier attacked by the same government, had gone along with Musharraf’s rule. In 2007, when Musharraf tried to bend the Supreme Court to his will, the civil society of Pakistan joined the lawyers’ community to foil him. If this is the jurisprudence against military takeovers, why are all politicians, from the MQM to the ANP, calling on the army to ‘do something’? For its part, following a recent corps commanders’ meeting, the army expressed its dissatisfaction over Karachi but it has no stomach for a takeover. And that is good because if it makes any mistakes, they will be related to its unwise policy of pronouncing on populist non-military causes. The military should abide by its constitutional mandate of guarding the frontiers of the country and, in the current situation of fighting terrorists, and let politicians clean up the mess that they have created themselves. That is the only way through which the latter will mature and the country’s institutions grow. Thankfully, the one political party with clout inside the army, the PML-N, has manfully resisted the temptation this time around. Its leader, Nawaz Sharif, would rather see the PPP government’s tenure completed than see it curtailed courtesy an army intervention. The army has little cause to topple the PPP government because the government is adhering to its unrealistic diktat on foreign policy. Whatever is the cause of the army’s abstention in 2011, it is good for Pakistan and certainly good for its nascent democracy. The military has reversed some of the practices of Musharraf in its new approach to issues. It disagreed with his policy of first taking over in anger over the civilian government’s efforts to normalise relations with India, but then proceeded to do the same thing. It has revived ‘strategic depth’ and is in the process of pulling out of the American orbit of global power. It cannot jeopardise this project by fighting terrorists in Karachi, a fight that it is not trained for.

The army can’t pull off something that the civilians can’t. Because of its supremacy and its frequent takeovers, civilian and constitutional institutions have become weak. And the reason behind the malfunction of democracy lies in precisely this. The current army chief, knowing this, has discontinued some past practices. Musharraf had placed more than 1,000 active and retired officers in various ministries, such as education, transportation, railways, sports and culture, as well as in semi-autonomous institutions such as the National Highways Authority and the Water and Power Development Authority. This ended up weakening the institutions and corrupting the inductees. The military is right in staying away from the political morass in Karachi. It must fight al Qaeda and the Taliban and do its utmost to prevent terrorism in Pakistan from spilling into China. Its earlier spilling into America and Europe has not benefited Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th,  2011.