Pakistan has come full circle

General Musharraf came to power in a coup against the civilian government of Nawaz Sharif on October 12, 1999, with the promise of election within months. In January 2000, as the chief executive of Pakistan, he ordered that all the judges take a fresh oath of office swearing allegiance to military rule. In effect the judges were barred from making any decisions against his rule. The judiciary did not play dead. Thirteen judges of the supreme court, including the chief justice, refused to do this.

History has a way of repeating itself. This March, with the spectre of the promised elections of 2007 looming, a lawsuit was filed in the Pakistani supreme court arguing that the general cannot contest the election to the presidency unless he gives up his uniform. Miffed that the court even entertained such a case, he fired the chief justice on trumped-up charges. The legal profession took to the streets in protest, causing the general to back down, re-instate the chief justice and promise that he would contest the election as a civilian.

Just before the elections in October 2007, a new challenge to the constitutionality of Musharraf’s candidacy was filed in the supreme court, since he still held on to his uniform. Worried that the court’s verdict would go against him, he decided to strike back, declared a state of emergency, suspended the constitution and dismissed the chief justice and independent-minded judges.

Truly, the clock has come full circle. Musharraf has ‘ordained’ that his uniform is more important than anything else. In life there are no quick and easy solutions. But dictators never learn this lesson. They offer quick, perfect solutions that always fail. Democrats, in contrast, offer few perfect solutions as they walk the winding road of consensual politics.

My Pakistani friends find a modicum of relief in sardonic humour. There is one line that is doing the rounds these days: Other countries have an army. In Pakistan, the army has a country.