Patience is in short supply in Pakistan. In an interview in Saudi Arabia, its chief executive Gen Pervez Musharraf talked about a vague time-frame of six months to three years for a return to democracy. As sanity returns to Pakistan in the wake of a military takeover, warnings are being heard from those who have had experiences of the long nights of the generals that despite the lofty claims of General Headquarters, it is time now to work around some kind of a time-frame for the return to popular rule.
History suggests that no Pakistani government in the past, including dictatorial military regimes, has ever been totally successful in fixing accountability on the corrupt, who can also be found in the rank and file of the military.
Renowned lawyer and human rights activist Asma Jehangir shares the view. "It is difficult to talk about human rights because in a country where there is no Constitution, no law and no institutions, human rights there are apparently trampled. It is true that our leaders left no stone unturned in committing blunders and ruining the country and thus formally paving way for the army to intervene. But accountability can be fixed only if we have independent institutions. What the country needs is strengthening and ensuring the independence of the institutions. In the past, we have seen children of the late generals contest elections; they do nothing but are millionaires. Should not they be made accountable? So, the only difference now is that we can just expect that the intentions of those who are yet to come are better. The future of Pakistan is linked to these intentions," Jehangir said recently.
The onus lies on the military regime to make public its intentions and back them through action. Among those Gen Musharraf has hand-picked to lead Pakistan out of the crisis, foreign minister Abdus Sattar is a respected figure at home. The only time eyebrows were raised against him was when he joined Imran Khan's Tehriq-e-Insaf. Reports suggest that the American and European lobby had to be pleased to include him. Sattar is no hawk but he was strongly against the way the Kargil operation was handled. So, it will be interesting to note how he sets course on ties with New Delhi. As one of the authors of the Shimla Agreement, one does not see him conceding ground to India on Kashmir. One says this because after the unilateral withdrawal of Pakistani troops from its international borders, US secretary of state Madeleine Albright expressed Washington's wish that Islamabad should have gone further, saying, "we would like it done on the Line of Control".
So far, there has been no favourable response from New Delhi as Sattar puts the foreign office in order. But at this point, one does not see Sattar being given a free hand on matters related to India. "The appointment of Sattar as the foreign minister is to be welcomed. His approach to foreign policy has always been marked by an indigenous Pakistani perspective rather than the westernised mindset that is so pervasive within the foreign service in general," says Shirin Mazari, a defence analyst. For the time being, however, Sattar will have to focus more on Afghanistan where a new gameplan is being worked out. After Gen Musharraf's parleys with the Saudis are over, one expects things to move in Kabul.
But the chief executive has fooled no one with his other appointments. His other measures too are being taken with a pinch of salt. Already, two weeks have passed and the results are far from satisfactory. In keeping with tradition, Gen Musharraf donned a spanking new white sherwani and flew to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (uae), two states that have had traditionally strong ties with Pakistan and are also the only ones apart from Islamabad in the region to recognise the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
On his return, Gen Musharraf is in for a gruelling session with the Commonwealth delegation that is presently in Pakistan and fielding posers. As reports of a two-year time-period for return to democracy do the rounds, it will only be the chief executive himself who will be able to set a deadline. Right now, he appears to be in no hurry.
And his National Security Council and cabinet appointees, barring Sattar, have been disappointing and certainly not worth waiting for two weeks. They are old, known and tried faces that have readily obliged former military governments. "It is a status quo team. These people have been part of a corrupt system. The people of Pakistan accepted and welcomed the military action of dismissing the Nawaz Sharif government only for ruthless accountability. The rulers should focus on just that. The Jamaat says it loud and clear that it would support the military rulers if they carried out transparent and aggressive accountability. But if they failed to punish the corrupt, we would create problems for them," says the Amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, whose party had previously always been dictator Zia-ul-Haq's B-team.
The shell-shocked Pakistan Muslim League is out of its stupor and is already demanding Sharif's release. More and more voices are being heard both at home and abroad that the military cannot hedge its bets forever. This is where the military had better watch out. That is, before Sharif becomes an underdog and starts to gain public sympathy, with the military regime having nothing to show for overthrowing his elected government. Also, Gen Musharraf has created problems for himself by not dissolving the assemblies.
As parliamentarians from various parties get their act together, voices are being raised that a session of the Parliament be summoned to elect a new leader of the lower house. This has given rise to a forward bloc in the Pakistan Muslim League headed by firebrand leader Syeda Abida Hussain who had recently quit Sharif's cabinet. She and her husband Fakhar Imam have got 20 MPs together and are working on a formula to press an in-house change. Most members of the group are from Punjab and say they were disappointed with Sharif and had been making frontal attacks on the wrong polices of the former rulers. "This was no sudden change of the heart. We have all along been opposing the ousted regime at our party meetings when the Muslim League was in power," says Mian Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri, a highly respected member.
It would be easy for this group to get the support of other parties like the Pakistan People's Party, the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. How Gen Musharraf is going to deal with this problem is anyone's guess. Normally, military regimes always dissolved the assemblies and called for fresh elections.
Meanwhile, uae President Sheikh Zaid bin Sultan al Nahayan issued a statement urging Gen Musharraf to show clemency to Sharif. "Islam incites clemency, not revenge. Islam calls for clemency and tolerance between all human beings, Muslims and non-Muslims." He expressed hope that Pakistan's new leadership would raise its prestige and proceed towards security and stability in the region, without haste.
Incidentally, just before the coup, Sharif and isi chief Gen Khwaja Ziauddin were in Abu Dhabi and some say the plot to sack Gen Musharraf which led to the coup was hatched there. Gen Musharraf, speaking in Abu Dhabi, vowed to root out the feudal system from the country. His priorities, he said, included revival of the national economy, speedy accountability, strengthening of the federation, recovery of loans and a crusade against corruption.
And his cash-strapped kitty got a timely infusion when Washington announced on October 28 that US food aid and banking loans were exempt from sanctions imposed on Pakistan after the military coup. US President Bill Clinton, in a memorandum to Albright, said he waived sanctions announced on October 15 on "the purchase of food or any other agricultural commodity, and the making of any loan or the providing of any credit to the government of Pakistan by any US bank".
The latest US sanctions represent a small fraction of the $2.5-billion US aid provided to Pakistan each year, two-thirds of which ($1.7 billion) is for health programmes.
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth ministerial delegation that arrived in Pakistan on October 27, was called upon the next day to reconsider its decision to suspend Pakistan's membership. The four-member delegation, led by Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, held an hour-long meeting with Sattar during which Pakistan sought a review of its decision while it explained the circumstances that had forced the coup. And Chief Justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddique was busy impressing upon the delegation that the courts in the country were functioning as usual.
It's business as usual for those in battle fatigues. As Pakistan passes each day under the control of its army, its people are getting increasingly wary of their latest tryst with the rule of the gun.
