Teetering on the edge

The crisis that has Pakistan in its unrelenting grip has left the country teetering on the edge of a new catastrophe. The crisis may have its origins in the ouster of Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion in 2022, but by now it has enveloped in its fold not only the successor Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government and the (now) opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI), but indeed the superior judiciary, executive and parliament.

The military establishment may have distanced itself from Imran Khan and objectively be standing in support of the incumbent government, but it is doing so in an unprecedentedly ‘silent’ mode.

Without further boring readers with a re-intonation of the events and issues that have brought the political and state institutional elite face-to-face in a seemingly ‘do or die’ confrontation (which intonation is by now coming out of our ears thanks to the incessant efforts of the mainstream and social media), it would not be an exaggeration to see the current conjuncture as the logical outcome of all that has been done to this country by the dominant military establishment, with the judiciary unfortunately in tow.

The military establishment stands accused (some would say guilty) of strangling the evolution of a genuine parliamentary democracy (albeit a bourgeois one) through direct interventions (military coups and martial laws) as well as manipulation of politics from behind the scenes. Without delving too far into the past, we may start from the General Ziaul Haq’s military coup of 1977.

Rigging of the general elections in that year by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government united the opposition Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) in street agitation that pushed the Bhutto regime onto the back foot.

Negotiations finally occurred between the two sides, in which, at the behest of the military then led by General Ziaul Haq, the last sticking point was the PNA’s demand for an end to Bhutto’s military operation in Balochistan and a return of the army to barracks in the strife-ridden province, release of Baloch and Pashtun (and other) leaders and workers in the Hyderabad Conspiracy Case, return of Baloch and Pashtun refugees to the country and compensation for loss of lives and material possessions.

When, on July 4, 1977, Bhutto finally gave in to those demands, he was overthrown by General Ziaul Haq’s coup that night. The harshest martial law in the country’s history was imposed, with extreme repression being visited on all who dared to raise their heads against this draconian regime (including the hanged Bhutto, courtesy a pliant judiciary). Zia changed the political culture of the country by imposing ‘Islamisation’ and encouraging the emergence of extremist religious groups to keep the democratic, progressive forces at bay.

He also initiated the ‘capture Punjab’ project, which saw Nawaz Sharif being groomed to emerge as the first significant Punjabi leader in Pakistan’s history. Through his (eventual) Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the largest in population and strongest in political terms province was wrested from the grasp of the PPP.

This set the pattern for the military establishment’s game plan for the 1990s, with the PML-N and the PPP (and their respective political allies) being ‘played’ against each other until both parties saw through the game after suffering their respective ups and downs at the hands of the establishment and deciding to sign the Charter of Democracy in exile in London in 2006.

Although the main mover of the Charter of Democracy, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated during General Parvez Musharraf’s regime in 2007, the PPP and PML-N stuck to the spirit if not letter of the Charter of Democracy and cooperated with each other, resulting in the first peaceful transfer of power through the ballot box in the country’s history in 2013.

Realising that the previous game plan had by now expired, the military establishment launched its newest satrap, Imran Khan, to recapture Punjab (by way of first Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, KP) from the Charter of Democracy partners. How disastrous was that project is reflected in the current ‘retreat’ and ‘silence’ of the military establishment.

Now we are confronted with the spectacle of a PDM government being unable to handle the mess left behind by Imran Khan.

Their failure, economic, political, has given a new lease of life and momentum to PTI’s challenge. In this confrontation, with the military establishment claiming ‘neutrality’ or at least silence, the judiciary has shown extraordinary leniency, even bias, in support of Imran Khan. Dressed in judicial jargon, even such an enterprise eventually rebounds on its authors.

This, in a nutshell, is what Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial has wrought as a self-inflicted wound that has split the Supreme Court (SC), made its judgements controversial if not unacceptable by parties that feel hard done by, and ruined the respect and dignity of the SC and his own person.

The chorus demanding his resignation may only just have begun, and threatens to grow louder as the full implications of his judicial overreach play out. To add to the indignities heaped on the SC thanks to the incumbent CJP, he and seven members of the bench that pre-emptively struck down the SC (Practice and Procedure) bill before it had even been passed/notified, have had references moved against them in the Supreme Judicial Council.

However, the rest of this conundrum plays out, and mind politicians are more resilient at bouncing back than judges, it is the SC, if not the superior judiciary as a whole, which may turn out to be the biggest casualty of a struggle that has Pakistan teetering on the brink of fresh disasters.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023