Our
Man In Islamabad
By Stephen Lendman
08 November, 2007
Countercurrents.org
The
Islamic Republic of Pakistan was established in August,1947 when its
majority Muslim population separated from British-controlled India and
became a sovereign state. Since then, the country has been plagued by
wars, political instability, and a series of military coups as it continues
stumbling unsuccessfully toward democracy.
Nominally, Pakistan is a
federal democratic republic (declared in 1956) under a semi-presidential
system and bicameral legislature consisting of a 100 member Senate and
larger lower house National Assembly. The President is considered head
of state and armed forces commander and chief (in a civilian capacity)
and is elected by the Electoral College of Pakistan comprised of both
houses of Parliament and the Provincial Assemblies. The Prime Minister
is Pakistan's head of government, is elected by the National Assembly,
and is usually the largest party's leader.
This is how government is
supposed to work in Pakistan, but things are never that simple there.
In its entire 60 year history, democracy has been a sham under various
elected and military regimes. Musharraf is just the latest military
one after he ousted elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in an October,
1999 coup. At the time, few people were surprised as tensions between
elements of Pakistan's ruling classes had been building for months.
Sharif had grown increasingly unpopular and had Musharraf not deposed
him other opposition forces might have done it.
Elected as a champion of
democracy, Sharif soon disappointed as did his predecessor, Benazir
Bhutto, who's now trying to reinvent herself as a democrat. Massive
corruption accompanied his repressive right-wing rule that made his
tenure widely unpopular. He sacked thousands of workers, cut food subsidies,
let utility costs skyrocket, banned state union sectors and restricted
workers' rights to demonstrate and strike. At the same time, he and
his cronies siphoned off millions of state funds, amassed enormous wealth,
and hid it in offshore accounts. Under his rule, state institutions
were collapsing, and workers and the poor suffered most. They wanted
change, and the army obliged but not the way most people wanted.
Since taking power in 1999
and appointing himself President in June, 2001, Musharraf engaged in
a precarious balancing act and ruled repressively. He tried to secure
Pakistan's traditional geopolitical and strategic South and Central
Asian interests. In addition, he supported the domestic Islamic fundamentalist
right against traditional political elites and popular opposition from
below. He also aimed to please Washington post-9/11 under threat of
being declared a hostile power if he didn't and was summarily told by
Deputy Secretary of State Armitage his punishment would be "to
be bombed back to the stone age." To avoid that, he stopped supporting
the Taliban and provided the Bush administration vital logistical help
in its attack and occupation of Afghanistan.
His reward was not being
bombed and over $10 billion in military and other aid ever since through
a virtual unaccountable blank check and blind eye to human rights abuses
under his regime. Since he came to power, Musharraf tried to silence
all political dissent and did it through disappearances, arbitrary detentions,
extrajudicial killings and torture on the pretext of fighting "terrorism."
And as a "war on terror" ally, he launched military assaults
against tribal and Taliban forces in Waziristan and Baluchistan, but
that caused internal resentment to build against his increasingly unpopular
rule. He also angered elements in the military that resent his lust
for power and reckless behavior to hold on to it, and that ultimately
may be his undoing.
Things came to a boil when
Musharraf suspended the nation's Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry,
last March. He accused him of "misconduct and misuse of authority"
as cover to remove a key official he thought might block his plan for
another five year term as President along with remaining chief of army
staff (COAS) that's constitutionally illegal. He named an interim head
justice, effectively placed Chaudhry under house arrest, and ordered
the judicial council to investigate corruption charges.
The response to the move
was outrage across the board from opposition parties, lawyers' organizations
and human rights groups. They called the action unconstitutional and
rallied in street protests against it. At the same time, Musharraf faces
other crises that led to his recent actions. The Bush administration
wants more from him against the Taliban as well as assurances he'll
be a reliable ally if the US attacks Iran. In addition, Baluchistan's
insurgency has continued for the past two years, and the army has lost
hundreds of troops confronting it. That's caused mounting defections
in its ranks, and public anger over it as well.
There are also economic issues
because Musharraf adopted Washington Consensus policies that allowed
poverty and discontent to grow hugely under his rule. People needs are
ignored, social inequity has increased, food prices have spiraled, unions
are cracked down on, and over half of government spending is for the
military and debt service. In addition, corruption is rampant, the military
practices crony capitalism, and Musharraf gets millions from it according
to Pakistani analyst, Ayesha Siddiqa, in her recently published book
- Military, Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military Economy." On top of
that, democracy in the country is a joke and always has been.
Nonetheless, Musharraf wants
to retain power until 2012 and staged a bogus October 6 election to
do it. It violated the law and was stage-managed by the military in
a process neither free nor fair because the general's allies dominate
the Parliament from having rigged elections five years ago. As expected,
Musharraf won easily getting all but five parliamentary votes (252 out
of 257) cast and swept the Provincial Assembly balloting as well. Opposition
MPs abstained or boycotted the proceeding calling it unconstitutional,
and the Supreme Court said no winner could be declared until it rules
if Musharraf could run in his joint COAS capacity.
Pakistan has seen increased
political upheaval for months. Musharraf wants to keep power by confronting
it and intends to stay allied with the Bush administration in the process.
At the time though, he said he'd step down as army chief once the Supreme
Court certified his election, but the fact remains he has no intention
to do it.
Pakistan Post-November
3
That's how things stood before
November 3 when the general staged his second coup by declaring a state
of emergency and suspending constitutional rule. But that's nothing
new in Pakistan's history. The country's first Constitution was adopted
in 1956 but was short-lived. It was abrogated in 1958 when martial law
was imposed. A new Constitution emerged in 1962 and then annulled in
1969, again under martial law. A third and current Constitution came
in 1973. It was suspended in 1977, restored in 1985 with major changes,
suspended again in 1999, and restored in 2002 with more changes until
Musharraf acted on November 3.
Few in the country with long
memories were surprised, and one analyst said it's "back to the
past again (in Pakistan." Another put it this way: "Pakistan's
constitutional development illustrate(s)....that a constitutional morality
(in the country) has not developed. The document is unable to discipline
the political elite, especially the bureaucratic and military elite."
Put another way, these comments illustrate that the country is not yet
ready for prime time.
Washburn University law professor
Ali Kahn explained on CounterPunch that article 232 of Pakistan's 1973
constitution "allows the President (as a civilian) to issue a Proclamation
of Emergency under grave circumstances." Kahn also said the Constitution
doesn't allow a "wholesale termination of services of Supreme Court
judges," thus rendering Musharraf's action an "extra-constitutional
coup." But it's not the first time he did it. After seizing power
in 1999, he ordered all judges to swear a new oath of allegiance to
him as military ruler. Thirteen of them on the Supreme Court refused,
were sacked, and then replaced by more complaint ones in a blatantly
unconstitutional act Musharraf got away with at the time.
Now he's at it again with
a brutal crackdown. After his November 3 action, Musharraf deployed
his security forces across the capital; occupied Parliament and the
Supreme Court; forced private TV stations off the air; suspended free
speech and the press as well as free assembly, association and movement;
disrupted mobile phone networks; and placed targeted opposition politicians,
lawyers and others under "preventive detention" after empowering
police to do it.
He further annulled the Supreme
Court's authority to rule against him, the Prime Minister, or anyone
acting on his behalf and made it a crime to ridicule the President,
armed forces, Parliament or the courts. Last July, the full Supreme
Court bench reinstated Chief Justice Choudhry to his post, but on November
3 he was removed again along with six other Supreme Court justices because
they refused to endorse Musharraf's Provisional Constitutional Order
(PCO) emergency decree. They were also placed under house arrest. The
president of Pakistan's Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Aitzaz
Ahsan, and other influential lawyers were also arrested as the general
hardens his dictatorial rule.
Why This Measure and Why
Now
Musharraf apparently feared
an imminent Choudhry Supreme Court ruling against his October 6 reelection
and acted preemptively to stop him. Reports in the country were that
he likely knew how the Court would rule and decided weeks ago to quash
it in his COAS capacity. Benazir Bhutto apparently knew it, too, and
left the country to avoid looking complicit so as not to tarnish her
pretense to be democratic. She returned to Islamabad November 6, the
country is under martial law with the Constitution suspended, and Musharraf,
as army chief, is a de facto dictator.
This event is front page
news everywhere with Washington and western leaders feigning outrage.
Condoleezza Rice calls Musharraf's move "highly regrettable"
while affirming the Bush administration's support for his regime nonetheless.
She claims it's because he acted up to now to put Pakistan on a "path
to democratic rule" that on its face is laughable.
Washington values Musharraf
in its "war on terror" because he backs the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars, is apparently on board against Tehran, and he lets the Pentagon
use Pakistan territory for cross-border incursions against its Iranian
neighbor in preparation for something bigger ahead. To prove it means
it, the administration signaled on November 4 it will keep aiding the
man George Bush calls one of his most important "counterrorism"
allies, and America values "stability" over democracy.
After the coup, Tariq Ali
wrote on CounterPunch and ZNet that Pakistan's largest independent TV
station, Geo TV, continues broadcasting outside the country, and one
of its "sharpest journalists," Hamid Mir, reported his sources
told him "the US Embassy had green lighted the coup because they
regarded (Chaudhry) as a nuisance and 'Taliban sympathiser.' "
He was at odds with Musharraf for months over key issues, according
to Ali, such as "disappeared prisoners, harassment of women and
rushed privatizations." The greater fear, however, was that "he
might (also be about to) declare a uniformed President illegal"
which is likely true and an easy sell to forces opposed to an unpopular
leader.
This has been building for
months and was the reason behind Washington's wanting a power-sharing
arrangement between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. Those plans unravelled
on November 3 even though Bhutto's criticism of the coup was muted,
and reports are she's back to negotiating a deal while, at the same
time, rallying her supporters for an opposition November 9 Rawalpindi
rally.
Accomodating Musharraf is
her only option to return to power (as Prime Minister) and to assure
corruption charges against her are dropped. That part of the deal was
sealed October 5 when Musharraf signed a "reconciliation ordinance"
absolving her of all outstanding charges of looting up to $2 billion
in public funds during her tenure. In her final year in office in 1996,
Transparency International, an independent watchdog group, named Pakistan
the second most corrupt country in the world even though its standing
later improved modestly.
Fast-Moving Events
in Pakistan
Pakistan remains in turmoil
under martial law. Thousands have been arrested including hundreds of
lawyers, opposition politicians, journalists and students according
to independent sources although the Interior Ministry acknowledges only
1800. In addition, pitched battles are on the streets, and all George
Bush can say is we'll "continue to work with (Musharraf and hope)
he will restore democracy as quickly as possible." Military and
other aid will continue, so it's business as usual, but that's to be
expected from two nations with contempt for the law.
Consider this New York Times
November 7 quote from prominent Islamabad lawyer Babar Sattar and relate
it to US conditions post-911: "How do you function as a lawyer
when the law is what the general says it is?" Consider also what
lawyer and former cabinet member Athar Minallah said about Pakistan's
Supreme Court: "When the (Court) started acting (independently)
for the first time in 60 years, they (Musharraf) came down very hard.
In the past, the Supreme Court had always connived with the establishment
and the military."
That's the state of things
under George Bush. He unconstitutionally usurped "Unitary Executive"
power to claim the law is what he says it is and once told Republican
colleagues the Constitution is "just a goddamned piece of paper."
In addition, federal courts, including the Supreme Court, are stacked
with supportive right wing justices, and the nation is about to get
a new Attorney General who condones torture and approves of arbitrary
executive power.
Where this will lead in the
US next year and beyond is open to debate. In Pakistan it's anyone's
guess as well as things remain fluid and events are breaking fast. January,
2008 Parliamentary elections are scheduled but are likely to be delayed
or suspended even though on November 8 Musharraf is now saying, through
his state media, the original timetable will be moved back to mid-February.
Maybe not according to some observers who believe the political process
is on hold until he secures his position as President for the next five
years and most importantly continues as army chief because that's where
the real power in the country lies. Pakistan's Constitution allows the
legislature's tenure to be extended up to a year so it's possible that's
the plan.
In the meantime, the Pentagon,
Bush administration, Democrats and corporate media back Musharraf even
if some in his own military may not. Washington badly needs him with
Afghanistan deteriorating badly and Iraq already a hopeless cause. It's
even more important given the reluctance of NATO and "coalition"
defense ministers to commit more troops and a growing anxiety of some
to pull out of Bush's wars entirely. With this backdrop, Musharraf portrays
himself as a rock of stability so who in Washington cares how he solidifies
power or if he'll accept Bhutto as Prime Minister. For Bush and Democrats,
only the "war on terror" matters so any leader backing it
is an ally. Bottom line despite muted criticism - democratic credentials
are not an issue. Fact is they never are.
Stephen Lendman lives
in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site
at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Steve Lendman
News and Information Hour on TheMicroEffect.com Mondays at noon US central
time.
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