We all know that politics is called “the art of the possible” but we rarely witness that unthinkable, dramatic change happening in the political
landscape of any country in today’s post cold war world. Let’s wait a moment
there is a country in the Indian sub-continent which sometimes does provide such
unthinkable political narrative which can be remotely considered as turning
impossible thing into possible one. Be it a democratically elected government
being ousted by a military man in 1999; or a tragic assassination of a woman leader in 2007, after what her greedy
business man husband goes on to grab the chair of president of the country; or
be the case of untraceable terror leader, Bin laden, being found and killed by
Americans in a military town of the country in 2011. All these stories come
from our neighboring country, Pakistan. The recent news floating from there is
rather positive and testifies the triumph of electoral democracy.
The result of the recently conducted general elections in
Pakistan threw a decisive mandate to Nawaz Sharif’s party, a man whom the
people of Pakistan hated deeply in 1998-99 following the Kargil debacle with India.
Due to that growing hatred and unpopularity in people’s mind, the then army General
Musharraf succeeded in imposing the military coup, and dethroning the
democratically elected government of Sharif without any bloodshed. In 2013, the
table of political landscape in Pakistan has turned in Sharif’s favour so much
that the man who was once to be awarded death sentence by the Pakistani military
court in 2000, but fortunately got a safe escape from the country only thanks
to the blessings of Saudi King; fourteen years down the line “that” ousted man,
Sharif, is newly elected prime minister of Pakistan; and Musharraf, ‘that
crowned military dictator’ is under quasi arrest facing the charges of
assassination of political figures like Benazir Bhutto and the old Baloch leader, Akbar Bugti. Not many leaders meet such
a welcome turn in one’s political carrier like Sharif; it’s hard to believe
that it is a real story of politics of a sovereign nation but not a plot of a thriller
Hindi film.
On being sworn-in, Sharif spoke in very emotional tone using
Punjabi expressions of reviving the relationship of his country with India
during an interview with Karan Thapar, an Indian journalist. That gave a
wishful reason to policy makers and journalists sitting in New Delhi to believe
that Pakistan is really changing this time. His party has got a clear-cut
mandate which allows his newly formed government to take important decisions;
but does that mean that Sharif will be able to deliver or rather will he be
allowed to deliver when it comes to improving the ties between the two
countries?
,
To answer this question, we need to delve slightly deeper into
the troubled past of the Indian sub-continent, the time when this region was
trying hard to get rid of British colonialism. Pakistan came out of Jinnah’s political
genius, as an experiment of a nation-state formed on the basis of religion,
Islam. As Jinnah himself termed it as “home of south- Asian Muslims”, and called
the “Quran” the constitution of the Islamic state of Pakistan. On the other
hand, Indian leaders sensed it very well that if India had to survive and flourish
as a united, civilized, modern society then it should opt only for secular democracy.
Because in their view that was the only solution available to administer a
society like India being so diverse on basis
of region, religion, language, caste and economic well being.
Over sixty five years of its existence Pakistan did survive as an
independent state but could not become a nation. And even in its statehood,
there are many holes; first and foremost it has developed an incurable disease
of various centers of power which means that power is hardly ever fully
concentrated in one hand which is under the control of civilian leadership, in
fact power in Pakistan dances amongst many hands from army, ISI, parliament to religious
Mullahs where the military establishment has the largest stake to claim. The
people of Pakistan are very much comfortable with this fact that if a civilian
leader fails to deliver, which happen quite often, and then they have no
problem in being ruled by the men in uniform. It is worthy to note that with
the help of ISI, army has successfully created a secure space in people’s mind
that if any institution which exists in the country that can save them from
India and the West then it is only army. It is necessary to add here that ‘false’
fear and hatred for ‘no-reason’ against ‘Hindu’ India was manufactured
deliberately by those institutions so that the latter can remain relevant in
the eyes of the people, can enjoy the unconditional support from their side. Army
has cleverly attached that fear with the idea of the very survival of Pakistan;
thus in orders to save the country, people have to restore their faith in one
institution which is army.
All these ground realities help us understand that if a civilian
government wishes to rule, then it should act in accordance with their military
masters but never against them. Sharif has been probably the most senior leader
in the country after Benazir’s exit, it is his third time at the helm of
affairs so he would show more wisdom and will not repeat any earlier mistakes
which include his turbulent relation with army during his second tenure and the
Indo-Pak ties under Lahore declaration. It is true that his government, as he
stated, would take measures to improve the relations under the same treaty but
what methods, what degree and up to what extent his government would move will
not be decided by Mr. Sharif’s office but by General Ashfaq Kayani’s office. In addition
to that, Sharif and his well-wishers have to keep a very vigilant eye over military
sector, and to ensure that “no Musharraf” is in waiting for a coup d’Etat.
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