Democracy, Pakistan Style

Today the “long march,� an act of protest and defiance against the ruling government of President Asif Zardari, made its way into Lahore with a splash. Stones, tear gas, 1000s of demonstrators and 1000s of police occupied the streets of Pakistan’s cultural capital. The news from Lahore harkens back to Pakistan’s earlier foray into democracy in the 1990s. Then the two dominate political parties, the Pakistan People’s Party (headed then by Benazir Bhutto and today by her widower, Asif Zardari) and the Pakistan Muslim League (headed by Nawaz Sharif) fought bitterly, neither proving particularly adept at ruling nor being in the opposition. Regular strikes were called, police employed, tear gas filled the air. Eventually, one government was dismissed, new elections held and a new government formed. Back and forth the political rulership went until the military had enough and stepped in with a bloodless coup in 1999, bringing General Pervez Musharraf to the presidency.

Are we witnessing a repeat, a return to the inability of Pakistan’s civilian political leadership to behave democratically? Or is there something else afoot? Is the military waiting in the wings while the civilians fight it out, ready to jump back into the helm? What ever happened to Swat (the district of the NWFP the government recently surrendered to “the Taliban�)? And, where did those dozen terrorists who so brazenly attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team less than two weeks ago disappear?

There are two things that are clear. The first is the sheer illegitimacy and incompetence of the current regime. The second is that people of Pakistan have not lost their democratic spirit and voice, despite years of military dictatorship. President Asif Zardari stands in a long line of duplicitous leaders. As the Quaid-i-Azam (the Great Leader, Mohammad Ali Jinnah) is sacrosanct and beyond critical analysis, one must begin with Zia-ul-Haq, the American puppet cum military dictator; while being the third largest receiver of U.S. foreign aid in the 1980s (behind Israel and Egypt) he institutionalized “Islamization� as a political reality in Pakistan. Benazir Bhutto, another darling of the United States, was the midwife of “the Taliban� while Prime Minister in the mid-1990s. The military dictator Pervez Musharraf kowtowed to American interests in Afghanistan and the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, while simultaneously making deals with them as a measure of securing his stay in power.

Today, Zardari stands as a civilian dictator, who brings his background as a feudal lord into his peculiar culture of ruling Pakistan. Over the past few months he has randomly shifted and removed his various ministers at his whim, went back on election promises of restoring civil judges that his predecessor Musharraf sacked, oversaw the judicial manipulation leading to the removal of Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif from their elected positions, imposed Section 144, dictatorially outlawing public gatherings of more than four people, censored GeoTV news from broadcasting across the country, and transformed Islamabad into a gated city, blocking all 86 entry points with confiscated lorries, barbed wire, cement road blocks, and 1000s of military and police personnel.

The nominally democratic government continues an age-old policy of attempting to manipulate public opinion through blatant lies and distortions. Unfortunately for Zardari and his Interior Minister Rehman Malik, there are over a dozen TV news stations reporting live the events unfolding as the “long march� proceeds from Karachi to Lahore and on to Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Malik in a press conference reported that no demonstration will be allowed on Constitution Avenue in front of the Supreme Court in Islamabad, but that other space has been made available for the protestors. Such a claim ignores the imposing of Section 144, the house arrest of the leaders of the lawyer’s movement and many of the opposition political leaders, the stopping of others from flying to the Islamabad-Rawalpindi airport, and the blocking of all routes into Islamabad.

Such open lies and double-speak by the government, while par for the course, show little hope of the ruling regime coming to terms with the movement knocking at their door.

During nine years of military rule, Pakistan’s democratic institutions were plundered. The National Assembly has little authority; elected members do not even have access to funds for support staff. The judiciary remains weakened by Musharraf’s manipulations and Zardari’s incompetence, including appointing a well-known corrupt drunkard to the highest position of Supreme Court Chief Justice.

While one cannot claim yet it is a “popular� movement, the long march inspires a diversity of activists to take to the street. Unlike in the 1990s, when demonstrations were carried out by PPP or PML hired thugs, today’s rallies are full of people, Pakistani citizens demanding accountability and a full restoration of democracy. They are supporting the restoration of the judiciary, a judiciary that was increasingly activist, demanding accountability from the ruling elites.

Tomorrow will be another day as the long march winds its way to Rawalpindi and then onwards to Islamabad. Today in Islamabad the streets are empty, yet the cricket fields are full of players, the park bustling with families playing and walking. Perhaps they are out enjoying their last days of freedom before several days of self-imposed house arrest in fear of a deteriorating security situation. Most offices are taking holiday the next few days, many of their employees not even able to reach as the road from neighboring Rawalpindi is completely blocked. In the market supplies of fruits and vegetables are meager, many people buying in bulk, just in case.

Postscript: Democracy wins! Other winners include Iftikhar Chaudry who is restored to his Chief Justice position, Prime Minister Gillani for brokering a settlement and ensuring democratic processes, PML leader Nawaz Sherif for backing down once the immediate demand of judicial restorations was met and not fighting on for regime change. The loser in all of this appears to be President Asif Zardari who has disappeared from headline news, exposed as the ‘civilian dictator’ that he is. One can only hope the U.S. government also awakens to this fact and stops propping up puppet regimes and let the citizens of Pakistan speak for themselves.