DAWN - Cowasjee Corner; 10 January, 1999
'Pity Pakistan'
Ardeshir Cowasjee
"PITY Pakistan" was the heading of an editorial in The Times (London) on January 5. The sub-heading: "A wretched mess of intolerance, killings and corruption."
Portions of this editorial read: "The massacre of at least 16 Shia Pakistanis at prayer in a mosque in the Punjab city of Multan is another grim example of the religious fanaticism that is destroying government and society in Pakistan... Religious vendettas ... are only one aspect of a deadly combination of lawlessness, intimidation, assassinations and corruption that has already brought this unhappy country close to political and economic collapse.
"Pakistanis look in vain to their government to end these horrors. In addition to the sectarian conflict... Pakistan also suffers from the debilitating violence in Karachi... violence, which has killed most commercial initiative in this former centre of trade, is now spilling beyond city and into all local politics...
"Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister, has promised to crack down on terrorism. But he shows neither the will nor capacity to do so... In many ways the Prime Minister is in an enviable position. He has an overwhelming parliamentary majority. He has won the power struggle with the former president and with Pakistan's judiciary... The political opposition is discredited by the allegations of corruption leveled at Benazir Bhutto, her family and her cronies. But he has thrown away his advantage. He has done little to liberalize the economy, reform the country's political institutions or crack down on corruption. He has shown himself to be as venal an opportunist as most politicians. And he appears greedy for absolute power with little idea of how to use it for Pakistan's advantage.
"There is an illusion in Pakistan that because it has exploded a nuclear bomb, it commands world respect. Pakistanis believe that they will be bailed out of their largely self-made economic mess because of their strategic and political importance. In fact, the resort to nuclear testing, just like Mr. Sharif's embrace of an even more rigid Islamicization, is a populist attempt to hide the failings of his rule. Both may bring short-lived popularity. But the costs - a cut in foreign aid and growing religious intolerance - are weighing heavily on the population..."
This is a serious indictment, not a word of which can be denied. It arouses anger. Why have the people of Pakistan been made objects of pity? For far too many years our leaders have forced us to rely on bounty, on crumbs doled out by the West and Japan to suit their own purposes. They made no effort to make a resourceful country self-reliant. To add to the humiliation, they rob and loot, they enrich themselves. Why do they not educate, encourage their people to strive, to seek, to find? The tyranny of the uneducated has surpassed the tyranny of the intellect. We must blame ourselves, we imbeciles. We did not rise; we remain supine.
Strife and violence, particularly when dependent upon drugs, guns and fanaticism, grows and grows when not stemmed by reprisals and even-handed punishment to mete out which there must be even-handed justice, to hand down which there must be honest god-fearing men. But, each leader since the loss of half the country in 1971 has done his utmost to subdue the judiciary, and down the years the efforts and results have progressively taken their toll.
History will not forgive Nawaz Sharif for bringing down the judiciary as he has done. To save his own skin, he conspired with the greedy pliable elements of the crumbling pillars of state. The Supreme Court of the land, whilst in session, was stormed by hooligans, and the judges forced to withdraw. This happened fourteen months ago. The ruffians did not fall from the sky. The world knows the raid was organized. The culprits have been identified. Yet the court has found itself incapable of, or unwilling to, bring the stormers and their instigators to book and to redeem its violated honour. If after a year and two months the Supreme Court has not acted, must we not ask why? Are the judges not aware that acquiescence in violence and an inability to punish have but encouraged further violence in our courts?
Again, we are to blame. Would the American people have tolerated Clinton organizing the storming of Congress to save himself? For that matter, would Clinton even have dreamed of such a measure?
The sooner we accept that the nation has no leverage and that to the lenders it is now of little strategic or political importance, the more chance we will have of survival. We should meekly accept whatever pittance they are willing to give us, and knuckle down to trying to attain self-reliance.
The last begging spree ended in a fiasco. We broke the begging-bowl. Should the enlightened joy-riders and wives included in the 129-strong 'delegation', who traveled in the special plane to Washington, who demanded to be kept in five-star hotels, not have asked themselves (let alone their leader who invited them) just what they could possibly contribute? Did one choose to withdraw?
A Lahore weekly newspaper reported that Jamil Rana, a former cricketing pal of Nawaz Sharif, was part of the 'delegation.' Apparently, on the eve of the grand departure, whilst the Prime Minister was holding court in Lahore, Rana, in his pristine Punjabi, asked his old pal, "Kaddi sanoo ve naal lay jaya karo, Badshaho." (Oh great king, take me too along with you sometime). Done, said the king. Get your passport to my military secretary and be at Chaklala at dawn. Rana rushed to his suburban Santnagar home, retrieved his passport, got himself to the airport on time, and off he went on the state-funded picnic.
Unbelievable, said I, to the editor. Did you check and recheck? I was told the source was another cricketer of Santnagar, and that so far there had been no denial. It reminds me of the old joke floated in the 1950s by the Sikhs, who are able to have a good laugh at their own expense, I told her. Precisely, she replied, we have referred to it this week.
Despite advice to the contrary from Khushwant Singh and others, the Sikhs strove, managed to carve out a homeland for themselves, and called it Khalistan. They opted for the presidential system and elected the brave warrior, Sardar Mahajagat Singh, as president. He swore in a government of a hundred ministers and advisers. Brothers-in-law, cousin-brothers thrice removed, and so on and so forth, had to be employed. Apart from the usual run-of-the-mill members, his cabinet included a Master of the Kirpan, a Master of the Kachaa, a Master of the Kesh, a Master of the Kara, a Master of the Kanga, a Master of the Roads (Sardar Rathore Singh) and a Master Gunner of the Gurdwaras (Sardar Tope Singh) holding the rank of a five-star general whose job it was to ensure that flags were hoisted, guns were fired, and bells were rung each time the president or one of the hundred VVIPs passed by any one of the many gurdwaras. The duty of the Master of the Roads was to block all the roads when any of the VVIPs were on the move and keep the hoi polloi firmly out of sight. 'Protocol', they called it.
After the first week of celebrations, pomp and glory, the president and his ministers went about their business - robbing, cheating, and extorting. This involved so much movement that normal life in Khalistan came to a standstill and no work could be done. Rathore had the roads blocked day and night. The guns of the gurdwaras fired non-stop, the bells clanged unceasingly, flags were never lowered.
After the passage of a hundred days Mahajagat called in his hundred. All is well, he told them, but in a week's time most of our people will be unemployed, they will have no food to eat, no water to drink. Tope Singh will have no powder for his guns. Form caucuses, and come up with a solution within three days.
Three days later they all met again, and Tope rose to address the assembly. "Oh Sardar of Sardars, Mahajagat, have no fear. We have before us precedents. Germany and Japan fought a war with America, they lost it, the victor then came to their aid and rebuilt both countries. Look at them today. We must declare war on America. We will lose it, and America will then come to our aid."
"Bravo, bravosimmo," said the president, as cheers resounded around the hall. Then, Mahajagat paused to think. He beckoned his Master Gunner to his side and whispered in his ear, "But, Brave Tope, what if we win the war?"