A bus carrying a hundred
politicians crashed near a farm. The farmer dug a mass grave and promptly buried
them all. The police chief asked him, “were they all dead?” “Some said they were
not. But you know the way politicians are”. The quip is purely American. On this
side of the seven seas politicians are also perceived to be liars. Some solace.
There was a Persian poet by the name of Anwari. One day he heard someone
reciting his poems in public. He was amused, “butthe poems belong to Anwari”, he
intervened.Yes, the man replied, “I am Anwari”. This is subcontinental politics.
Bragging knows no bounds.
Was Jinnah a typical sub-continental politician? He was not like Gandhi and he
was not at all like Nehru.There was no one like him even in his own party.
Gandhi and Nehru went to the people, worked Khadi, “wore Khadi”, and became one
with the common man. Jinnah did not seek people. He made themfollow him. Calling
him a politician was a misnomer. He was a statesman of the higher domains. It
was his compelling sincerity, unquestionable integrity and above all, acute God
Consciousness that guided him to achieve his sacred mission. The mission was
holy and blessed as it was assigned to Jinnah by no less a person than the
Prophet (PBUH) himself, when he was fully awake or He (PBUH) had appeared to him
in his dream. “It does not matter” as either way it means the same, says Dr.
Allan Keislar.
Politicians in Pakistan were a disappointment from day one when Jinnah termed
them as “fake coins in my pocket”. Liaqat Ali never seemed to trust them either.
That is why perhaps he intentionally delayed the constitution. The draft
constitution proposing parliamentary democracy moved by prime minister Muhammad
Ali Bogra was angrily rejected by Governor General Ghulam Muhammad. His decision
was challenged in the Apex Court. The plea was rejected.The 1956 constitution
presented by Ch. Muhammad Ali was a muddled mix of a parliamentary democracy
with unprecedented and uncharacteristic powers for the president. It was readily
approved. In 1950’s all the big wigs appeared to firmly hold Charles de Gaulle’s
view, “Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians”.
Ghulam Muhammad, the Governor General,Iskandar Mirza, the Defense Minister, the
Army Chief, Ayub Khan and even the Chief Justice who had turned down the case of
Muhammad Ali Bogra all seemed to be convinced that the politicians needed a
check on their activities. That is why the 1956 constitution was considered
workable.
When Ayub Khan took overhe brought in the presidential form.His impression of
the politicians’ ruthless, unscrupulous and uncouth behavior in and outside the
parliament from his East Pakistan exposure to politics had been disgusting. He
abolished the political parties in October 1958, promulgated “Elected Bodies
Disqualification Order”, EBDO, in August,1959 and disqualified about 6000
persons half of them from the Eastern Wing. It included at least 75 prominent
politicians from both the wings of the country.Zia and Musharraf are recent
history.
One can remember the politicians of those days as a bunch of untrustworthy
squabbling men and women with no holds barred, ruthlessly in pursuit of powerby
any means in a cut-throat and pitiless competition.They never had a sense of
direction or political purpose except gaining and retaining power by hook or
crook. There were some honorable exceptions though, lost in the crowed of a
corrupt and mediocre majority.
Muslims have produced some great personalities, very few indeed. Their virtues
were larger than life. Their faults insignificant by comparison. The historian
in reverence for them have refrained from judging them.
Pakistan has tried to mimic Islamic history. We have created a good number of
holy cows, who had huge faults of primitive nature. Holy they are nevertheless.
Try and analyze their doings and undoing and leave your family to regret your
blunder.
Some of them opposed the very idea of Pakistan. Immediately on independence they
assumed its full ownership. This atrocity is now being perceived as the most
legitimate claim. Their‘forefathers had laid untold sacrifices during struggle
for independence’, a preposterous claim indeed.
They are others who gained power, but lost half of Pakistan. They died paying
for their sins. We call them martyrs. This uncontrollable greed for power also
took some more lives, increasing the number of martyrs to commemorate their more
imagined than real ideals. Some of them are now legends with their lofty
ideologies which are too spurious to be dilated upon publically.
Some came to power by door-crashing. We have their names on the honor boards and
their portraits filling the national galleries. We never question their method
of coming to power. We condone their usurpation and thus become a party to it.
The Elections 2018 have done strange things. People fed up with abject poverty
and gross injustice have voted for change. Imran Khan has started with stranger
ideas. His austerity drive will be hard to swallow even for his own party mates.
Hundreds of cars and thousands of servants are being surrendered along with
other royal perks. An across the board justice plans to make no distinction
between a high cast and lowly thief.
The defeated lot is pestering Imran Khan to fulfil his promises immediately.
They conveniently forget that the promises made by them and their grandfathers
have yet to be fulfilled despite being in power several times.
It is time for the politicians of the hackneyed type to put their act together.
They should now leave their heavenly niches and come down to earth to face the
ground realities. Old mantras including the ‘Charter of Democracy’ (readkleptocracy)
have failed them.It only behooves them to learn to act a constructive
opposition.
IK and party have a herculean task ahead of leading the nation out of the thick
woods. The opposition, in way of asking God’s forgiveness must helpthem deliver.
(Askari Raza Malik has served Pakistan Army as Major General. He is author of a
book “Pakistan, in Search of a Messiah”)