Periscope on Pakistan

Law in khaki That General Musharraf seems to be playing for keeps is the significance of the trauma through which their lordships have bee...

Law in khaki

That General Musharraf seems to be playing for keeps is the significance of the trauma through which their lordships have been put. To be sure, judicial freedom and military rule were incompatible from the start. But it is only now that this incompatibility was tested in the shape of the constitutional petitions before the Supreme Court challenging military rule. In Pakistan it is not only power which flows from the barrel of a gun. Legality and validation also flow from the same source.

Forget American concern
The trouble is that there is so much else that is incompatible with military rule: fundamental rights as a whole for one, press freedom for another. How long will the saviour in General Musharraf tolerate these deviations from the military norm? One illusion that it is in our best interests to get rid of fast is regarding the American concern for democracy in Pakistan. From Washington Pakistan is just a blip on the world screen and although democracy and humanrights are issues with which the US likes to whip other countries when it wants to, of greater concern to the US as far as Pakistan is concerned is a raft of other issues: terrorism, Osama bin Laden and the CTBT. If we are forthcoming on these issues democracy can take a back seat. The military government also understands this, which is why it has started this wholly unnecessary debate regarding the CTBT. To sign or not to sign it should be our sovereign decision quite uninfluenced by such ephemera as Clinton8217;s forthcoming visit to South Asia. What if he misses Pakistan? Will the heavens fall? We obviously think they will, which is why the itinerary of Clinton8217;s visit is such a hot issue in Pakistan. Anyway, what happens at home is of greater importance.

Persuading the military?
Nawaz Sharif no longer is the issue. If he had overreached himself he has met his just deserts through the operation of those forbidding laws which hold sway over Pakistani politics. The issue today is different. The lackof direction from which the country suffers is only made worse by a regression to militarism because just as judicial freedom and military rule are incompatible, vision and military rule are two different things.

Accordingly, if getting rid of Nawaz Sharif8217;s luckless rule seemed to be the overriding national imperative on the evening of October 12, the imperative today is how to shorten the lengthening shadows of military rule. How do we go about this? How does the nation persuade the military? This is the foremost problem facing Pakistan today. Tailpiece: Last week,while in New Delhi I was visiting the Pakistan High Commission to pay my respects, I felt my heart sink when I saw in the foyer the photographs of President Rafiq Tarar and General Pervez Musharraf, the latter in full military regalia. While it goes without saying that the two together make a striking advertisement for Pakistan, why not simply a picture of Jinnah instead?