The cliche for democracy suggests that it is for the people, but the Pakistanis currently prefer accountability at all costs. Even over democracy. The clamouring that can be heard in every corner of the country is: "We dont want elections. We dont want democracy. We want only ehtesaab." And accountability it shall be-military style.
Former petroleum minister Anwer Saifullah was rudely woken up by midnight knocks, which are in vogue all over again. Military boots, accompanied by the local police, stomped into his bedroom and arrested him to throw him behind bars. Saifullah, who had flirted with both Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, was charged with default. The conservative Pakhtoon society was shocked at this violation of the chadar and the chardiwari.
"What is the difference between how Najam Sethi was arrested by a civilian dictator and the way Saifullah was insulted?" asked a politician. Sethi, a journalist known for his impeccable liberal credentials and fearless opposition to the Nawaz Sharif governments anti-democratic stance, has, a trifle ironically, said that Gen Pervez Musharrafs government should be given a chance to implement its "first-rate agenda." He said, "This regime derives its legitimacy from the people of Pakistan." Western countries and international agencies are, meanwhile, also pushing for a timetable for return to democracy as they fear that their aid and grants may go down the drain with the scrapping of ongoing projects by a new government that reverses all previous decisions in a fit of personal vendetta, something that characterised Nawaz Sharifs aborted reign.
Musharrafs regime of "legitimacy" has, however, not stopped with Saifullahs humiliation. Close on its heels came the arrest of Sarwar Khan Kakar, a former minister in the Muslim League government at Quetta, Baluchistan. His brother Khalid Kakar told Outlook: "My brother suffered a heart attack at night while in police lockup and had to be rushed to a hospital. When he tried to speak to us, the police covered his mouth and threw us out of the room threatening us not to come near him or go to the media." A renowned human rights activist, Khalid is a practising lawyer in Quetta and has served five years in Zia-ul-Haqs jail.
He is very emphatic when he says: "What kind of accountability is this? According to the law, first an fir should be lodged and then the law should take its course. But in this case no report has been lodged and we do not know why my brother has been jailed."
The dispensation has hardly been uniform. Many known defaulters have managed to leave the country, resulting in the interior ministry now manning all exit points at airports round the clock. But even then the question is: does anyone look beyond Torkham-on the Afghanistan border area-which is the favourite exit route these days?
The chief prosecutor of the newly set up National Accountability Bureau, Farouk Adam Khan, is surprised: "We too have heard about these incidents and it is most unfortunate. There are some people who are not really trained to carry out these exercises but in future we will be careful."
Step by step, as the army marches towards its goal, arousing a lot of hope among Pakistanis, the realisation that it is not as easy as it had thought is dawning on it. As the grand democratic alliance meets for the first time after the army takeover, a demand that might emerge is a date for return to democracy.
Meanwhile, Adam Khan insists on the fairness of the current dispensation by stressing on the fact that women defaulters have not been touched. Also not touched are members of the judiciary, though nobody is saying why. Anyway, for the time being there are three sets of brothers from the Muslim League, who held the highest offices in the country, who are now uncertain about their futures.
Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif, Nisar Ali Khan and Gen (retd) Ifthiqar Ali, Saif-ur-Rehman and Mujib-ur-Rehman. So far Nawaz Sharif and Saif-ur-Rehman have been flown to Karachi to stand trial for the ongoing case of hijacking Musharrafs aircraft. Sharifs brother Shahbaz, former Punjab CM, has also been produced before an anti-terrorist court there for the same case and is being tried on charges of treason and conspiracy to murder. The judge has ordered that Shahbaz, along with Saif-ur-Rehman and Sharifs principal secretary Saeed Mehdi, be produced before the court again. If convicted they might face the death penalty. Sharifs information minister Mushahid Hussain is in preventive custody while no one knows where the others are being held. But little does the regime realise that by bringing Nawaz Sharif to trial for the aircraft hijacking case, it has unwittingly brought the three factions of the Pakistan Muslim League together.
As matters stood about two weeks ago, the Muslim League had threatened to split into three groups. It is rare for this political party to have participated in agitational politics. The farthest they went was when Nawaz Sharif took out a train march during Benazir Bhuttos second term. It appears now that the army has ensured without realising it that they are helping this status quoist political outfit put its act together and warm up the streets. It was Ejaz-ul-Haq, the son of former military dictator Gen Zia, who wanted to lead his faction of the Muslim League onto the streets but there were not many followers. Another group of liberals, which has a strong support base, is headed by Syeda Abida Hussain and her husband Fakhar Iman. It also includes Mohammad Azhar Khan, a high-profile Muslim Leaguer from Lahore. He had split from Nawaz Sharif while the latter was still the prime minister. This group had the potential to find like-minded people from other political parties, if the assemblies were restored, and choose a new leader of the house. But as of now, chances of elections being held are higher.
The third group is led by the Chowdheries of Gujarat. Among others, it includes former interior minister Shujaat Hussain who has never been comfortable with Nawaz Sharif.
The missing ingredient is a propaganda machine and the leadership to organise street agitations. The reason is quite simple: Mushahid Hussain and former managing director of Pakistan Television Pervez Rasheed are under arrest.
Hussains abilities and his well-recognised access to the international media makes him the Muslim Leagues equivalent of Nazi propaganda maverick Goebbels. Rasheed, on the other hand, has a past of being a student leader of left organisations and has led movements against Gen Ayub Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Zia-ul-Haq. He knows how to take on military regimes.
So, will the status quoist Muslim League write a new page in history by being transformed by circumstances into a radical organisation that challenges the reactionary establishment.
