Today, Pakistan faces a deadly political impasse
with grave ramifications. The players include the government, opposition,
judiciary, the Armed Forces, media, the masses and finally the foreign hand. To
understand the nature of imbroglio and solution thereof, we need to be clear
where each stakeholder stands today, what it is striving for and what must be
done to sail through.
Starting with PPP led coalition government, which
includes PPP, ANP, PML (Q) and MQM; The PPP, though enjoys strong support from
USA because of the services rendered, has failed on the domestic front in every
sphere of governance, involvement in corruption, destroying institutions,
perpetual defiance to judiciary, stand-off with the Army, a recent development,
and bringing the country to the brink of economic disaster, and, as such, has
nothing to go to the masses and now vying to become political martyrs for gaining
sympathy vote. And since martyrdom is not in sight, their frustration is
growing with each passing day. Their only option is to take advantage of the
little time they are left with, coupled with the short memory of the masses,
and at least try to give a semblance of governance, besides curbing the
tendency to deal politically the judicial matters confronted by the leadership.
ANP, if ‘Railways’ is any gauge of their performance, has no option but to go
along with PPP. PML (Q), in either case is facing extinction, and as such,
should merge with either PPP or PML (N), using its well known art of
‘dealings’. In my reckoning they would be better of aligning with their parent
party, if nothing else, for this country’s sake. The MQM, however, faces a
dilemma - the day PPP is strong enough, MQM will be the likely target and, I am
sure, their leadership knows it. As such, their survival is to stand on high
moral grounds and must delink themselves from Government’s misdeeds.
The second stakeholder is the opposition; which is
symbolized by Nawaz Sharif who, besides being a man of less than average
intelligence, is suffering from a kind of ‘military takeover phobia’. These
weaknesses have been successfully exploited by President Zardari and he, till
recently, played the role of a friendly opposition. Still undecided, the
opposition needs to get its act together. It’s now or never situation and time
for redemption. En-masse resignations from the assemblies may save the day for
them and for the country.
The third stakeholder, Judiciary; though it has
given some landmark decisions, yet the apex court is gradually losing moral
ascendency and faith in the ‘revamped’ judiciary is dwindling because of,
firstly, its inability to rein-in those bent upon maligning its image and,
secondly, inability to get its decisions implemented on some important cases,
for fear of political fall-out. Even the six options given in the NRO
implementation case are a manifestation of expediency, as the infamous ‘law of
necessity’. They have little time left to assert.
The Armed Forces; This institution, till a few
years back, could be ascribed as the center of gravity of this country - the
status undergoing dilution with each passing day. The nation at large, which
has invested and continues to invest in the Armed Forces, has great
expectations from this institution. As such, despite successful operations in
Swat and South Wazirstan, the masses were jolted by the intelligence,
operational and security related failures as manifested in terrorist attacks on
GHQ, Parade Lane, Mehran Base and, most significant, the 2nd May incident,
having serious ramifications for the country. Besides, as the ensuing
developments indicate, the strategy supposedly being followed by the military
vis-à-vis USA has back fired and the Armed Forces have failed (at least in
perception) in what the media calls ‘performance audit’. Sensing an
opportunity, the ruling elite, with support of USA against some commitments, is
trying to undermine the Army as an institution and, thus, a stand-off. The
military leadership must continue to display restraint against ongoing
provocations, perform on ground to thwart threats to Pakistan’s security, their
primary responsibility, and concentrate on their professional pursuits – their
only option to emerge victorious from the impasse.
The fifth stake holder, the media; Till recently,
the media played a very constructive role in highlighting the shortfalls in
governance and institutional failures and acted as an independent and impartial
monitoring body. However, the power it has started to generate for affecting
changes, has also made it vulnerable to ‘enticements and coercion’, resulting
into affiliations and lack of objectivity, though still not very pronounced. To
those who have certain ‘motivation’ for taking sides, I would only request that
they must shun pursuit of personal gains and play an impartial role as the
stakes are too high – on media the future course of this country depends.
Sixth stake holder, the masses; though in democracies,
the people are masters of their destiny, in Pakistan, they have abdicated this
privilege by remaining indifferent, and, as such, do not matter in the scheme
of things. They must begin to assert and strive to break the shackles of
subservience, or they would remain condemned to oblivion, as hither to.
Finally, the foreign hand, USA; for achievement of
their long term objectives in the region, it is imperative that Pakistan must
be ruled by a pliant leadership which must remain subservient to their demands.
Contrary to previous practice of relying on military dictators, this time, they
are betting on the civilian political leadership for the purpose and would go
all out to protect the interests of their ‘assets’. However, since their
strategy vis-à-vis Pakistan hinges on a ‘sold out’ leadership, it would mean
more extremism and would ultimately be counter-productive. They must play a
positive role in strengthening democracy to ensure a stable Pakistan, which is
in everybody’s interest.
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