Pakistan’s Democratic Battle

On the evening of October 21^st, the major arteries leading into Lahore were clogged with cars, buses and trucks carrying fervent supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. As night fell, Greater Iqbal Park, infamous for political gatherings, was teeming with people from across the country. Party anthems praising Sharif blared from speakers scattered throughout the park, while party leaders anxiously awaited the arrival of their supreme leader. Sharif soon appeared in a helicopter above the park, enthusiastically waving to his supporters who had come to hear him speak after six years.

The stage was set for Sharif’s grand return. For weeks, the Pakistan Muslim League inundated the airwaves with campaign ads, adorning Lahore with party flags and banners featuring Sharif’s image. Party ticket holders had been instructed to transport thousands of workers to welcome their leader. After a disastrous year in power, leading a coalition government, the party had to display its political influence in the heart of Punjab. This forced them to play their trump card: Nawaz Sharif. It was time for the party not only to assert their relevance but also to demonstrate their significance to the ultimate power player in the country, the Pakistan Army.

Fool me twice, shame on you!

Pakistan has had a checkered democratic history. Elected prime ministers have often been assassinated, overthrown, or convicted. Half of Pakistan’s 75-year history has been ruled by military dictatorship, while the other half is yet to see an elected prime minister carry out a full constitutional 5-year term. The latest victim in the power struggle between the formidable army and politicians is Imran Khan. Once the blue-eyed boy of the generals Khan’s fall from grace was historically inevitable as the military green-lit his removal, leading to his ousting from office through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022.

Ashes ashes, we all fall down!

The scenes were unreal. Brandishing sticks and stones, a fired-up crowd marched through security check points, advancing deep into Lahore’s military cantonment. The protestors had had enough. Reaching the gated residence of Lieutenant General Salman Fayyaz Ghani, the corps commander of Lahore, the mob stormed the compound. They had already threatened the government, but what was about to unravel had never been seen before. Having knocked down the gate, the charged crowd broke into the house, after completely ransacking and vandalizing the home, they set the residence on fire. “We warned you!” they roared.

The Incoming Dawn

By: Agha Haider Raza

The dawn of a new year is about to rise, but despite the passing of another year, it seems Pakistan is stuck in the wrong gear. The passing year has been a tumultuous one. Starting on feeble legs in January due to a battered economy and a power struggle between then prime minister Imran Khan and the previous army chief, Qamar Bajwa. The bitterness created space for the opposition in Parliament to oust Khan’s government in April. Despite a coalition of multiple political parties forming the cabinet after Khan was voted out of office, the country has been sailing through extremely choppy waters. As seen in the movie Titanic, one wonders if the alarm bells which are ringing, are those being sounded before the country hits an iceberg or are they the sounds of the band playing the violin while the ship is sinking.

Pakistan Craves Stability

By: Agha Haider Raza

I came across a Twitter thread sent to me the other day, highlighting snippets from a book. One particular quote from the thread stood out. “Corruption was rampant, with massive thievery of state property, including illegal tapping of electricity.” “Friendship, especially political ones, determined who got what.” Surely, I thought to myself, the author must be writing about the current state of affairs Pakistan. Today, the country’s economy is in shambles, finance minister Ishaq Dar is gallivanting around the world in an attempt to restructure and refinance Pakistan’s debt, Moody has downgraded Pakistan’s credit rating while inflation in the country hovers around 20%.

The snippets were from Lee Kuan Yew’s book, From Third World to First, written back in 2000 on his observations of Pakistan from the early 1990s. He was shocked at hearing only 21 percent of the Pakistan’s budget was allocated for administering the country, while the remaining amount was prioritized defense and debt restructuring. 

Despite the passing of decades, these problems have only exacerbated, bringing Pakistan to the mercy of global financial institutions and rich countries. The country’s economic and political crises have been staring the country in the face for years, but little has been done by our politicians to resolve or attempt to correct course. With roughly 35 years of military rule, and sporadic civilian governance, Pakistan craves democratic stability.  The dirty politics of the 1990s culminated in the imposition of martial law, ensuring that the dominating Pakistan military continued to remain in power. With the return of a democratic government after elections in 2008, it was hoped that the military would keep itself at bay. Unfortunately, meddling by the military establishment could not be curtailed. In 2011, Imran Khan relished the opportunity to work with the military to find a path to become Pakistan’s prime minister.

Imran Khan – Prime Minister of Pakistan

With the military paving the path, Khan won the 2018 elections and started his reign as the country’s 30th prime minister. Khan’s tumultuous tenure was rigged with political victimization, media censorship, and a sheer obsession of locking up political opponents. Khan’s inexperience of public office saw multiple changes within his cabinet, including four different finance ministers within his first three years in office. Not known to be diplomatic, Khan bungled foreign relations with key allies including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and most importantly, China. Despite the military’s desire to thaw relations with India, Khan stood steadfast on his desire to forego any dealings with his neighbor. With the economy tanking, rampant inflation, and poor governance, the military pulled their support. Khan was forced to relinquish office after he lost a vote of confidence in parliament.

Spewing venom, Khan took the streets, selling a narrative that the new government was ‘imported’ by the US and military top brass, blaming the United States for orchestrating his departure after colluding with generals of Pakistan’s army. The problem with this narrative is that not only is it simply not true, Khan has reignited a suppressed anti-American sentiment to bolster his claims, while charge sheeting military generals of treason.

The only fortunate part of this narrative – like his predecessors Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto – Khan seems to have come to the realization that the military must not have a role in political engineering (unless they support him!). Absolving himself from accountability during his tenure, Khan has hinted it was the military who actually controlled power, forcing him to take unpopular decisions. But Khan has also admitted he used the military and the influential ISI to coerce politicians for various purposes including ensuring their presence in parliament for passing legislation and key votes.

It is certainly welcoming that Khan has realized the country’s powerful military should be kept at bay and not allowed to engineer Pakistan’s political landscape. For far too long the political class has allowed itself to be used as pawns and puppets, dancing to the tune of those blowing the trumpet from Rawalpindi. The problem however is that Imran Khan needs to tend to Pakistan’s economy, and not obsess over arresting his political rivals. The country has barely avoided default, and is teetering on the brink of an economic collapse. The current financial team seems to be running around Washington, DC like headless chickens, the country is immensely polarized, calamity has struck with floods wreaking havoc across Pakistan while the political elite refuse to have any meaningful economic policy debate or discourse.

Pakistan’s Economic Challenges

Pakistan has a huge population which is only growing. More than sixty percent of the country’s population is under the age of 30. Education metrics are extremely poor, Pakistan has a meager export industry with minimum focus on expanding its manufacturing sector. Despite being subsidized, the agriculture sector has one of the lowest yields of crop in the region with hardly any seed development or research over the past few decades. Many look for a quick buck in the real estate industry, by parking money in land holdings, contributing zilch to the country’s GDP. Pakistan relies heavily on imports, but hardly has any foreign exchange reserves to keep up with its purchase bill. To further compound problems, the country faces an acute energy crisis, relying on expensive non-renewable sources.

With such serious issues staring the country in the face, the political rulers are busy playing musical chairs for the prized prime minister seat in Islamabad. The military needs to stop toying with technocrats by imposing their own finance minister. Enough of the scripted politics and backroom deals. Short term gains will not help Pakistan. A country of 230 million people desperately requires stability, with a laser sharp focus on establishing strong economic fundamentals. Such stability can only take place when the military is not allowed to engineer Pakistan’s political landscape anymore.

Agha Haider Raza tweets at @ahraza_

New Year, New Tasks

By: Agha Haider Raza

2011 has been a rather tumultuous year for Pakistan. There have been too many incidents to highlight and ponder over.  With the assassination of Salmaan Taseer in January to the deaths of Pakistani soldiers in November, the land of the pure has taken a lot of bruising. Despite suffering at the hands of homegrown and natural disasters, Pakistan continues to point fingers at the United States and other foreign intelligence agencies.  Now don’t get me wrong, the US has done its fair share to ruffle things up in the region, but I have to ask– how long can the country blame foreign powers for our own misery? Pakistan has failed to create a cohesive narrative at a time when it is most necessary.

Narrator vs Narrative

By: Agha Haider Raza

Journalists across Pakistan have continuously stressed the importance
of protecting the freedom of speech as way of ensuring the media’s
role as one of the country’s most crucial accountability mechanisms.
However as of late the media seems to have overstepped the very
function they speak so highly of.

Silence is Not Always Golden

By: Agha Haider Raza

It’s not every day that you are woken up by the statement “oi jaago, Bin Laden ko khatam kur diya hai” (wake up, Bin Laden has been finished).

As soon as I heard the rumor, I did exactly what millions of others around the world must have done, and swiftly turned on the television. Indeed, blaring upfront was the breaking news that the world’s most wanted terrorist had been shot dead.  Tickers were already running below the screen on all news channels, as they anticipated President Obama’s remarks that would turn the rumor into reality. The President of the United States soon came on the air and with a straight face announced the death of Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad.  All eyes now turned to Pakistan.

In order to understand the audacity of Osama Bin Laden hiding in Abbottabad, eager news junkies waited for a statement from the Government of Pakistan.  After all, it had been hours since the Operation to eliminate Bin Laden had been carried out on Pakistani soil. President Obama had already made his statement acknowledging the role of Pakistan’s intelligentsia at 8.35AM PST.  “It [is] important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding”.  With pride, I awaited the response from a government I am rarely proud of.  Pakistan had suffered tremendous losses over the past decade because of 19 hijackers on 9/11 and an uncomfortable policy in Afghanistan known as ‘strategic depth’ carried out by the ISI.  But here was our shining moment.  To silence those who consistently called on Pakistan to “do more”.

As the day progressed, the conventional and social media exploded.  Fox News had their stories while MSNBC captured live images of Americans celebrating in the streets in the wee hours of the night.  With little information in regards to the Operation, information released from various media outlets started portraying their own stories.  Questions arose about the extravagant compound Bin Laden was residing in with such close proximity to the PMA, while many inquired about the sincerity of the Pakistan Military.  Sohaib Athar who happened to be tweeting about a low-flying helicopter announced that he heard a loud explosion during the night, became an instant celebrity.  CNN published the news about his tweets and instantly @ReallyVirtual found himself as the most sought out tweeter.  The poor man was bombarded for media interviews from around the world.  I guess that explains how he was able to garner over 90,000 followers (and counting) within a matter of hours.

While the world dissected and deciphered any news story about Osama Bin Laden, the Pakistan Government chose to remain silent.  Soon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a rather awkward but amusing statement.  “This operation was conducted by the US forces in accordance with declared US policy that Osama bin Laden will be eliminated in a direct action by the US forces, wherever found in the world”.  The press release was truly mesmerizing.  It implied that the United States unilaterally undertook the Operation to root out Bin Laden – in stark contrast to what President Obama had announced earlier.  I tried to find President Zardari’s schedule, to see if there was any slot for a public announcement.  Luckily, via http://www.president.gov.pk I was able to understand Zardari’s absence from a public announcement in regards to Bin Laden’s capture only a 100 kilometers from the Presidency.  Asif Zardari was accepting credentials from newly inducted Ambassadors at Diplomatic Enclave along with presiding over the Oath-taking ceremony for 18 new Ministers (which in itself is shrouded in mystery).

While the international media openly criticized the Government of Pakistan (GoP) and the Pakistan Military for allowing Bin Laden to reside so closely to Islamabad and the PMA, our civilian leader chose to remain away from the mic and camera.  Assuming that the GoP may have let the Military handle such a worldwide story due to the sensitivity of the issue, I scanned the ISPR (Pakistan Military Press Dept.) but found nothing.  Here we were, at the core of the biggest news story of the century and beyond the 243 words of the press released issued by MoFA, nothing.

The entire day has passed by and world leaders have spoken on the death of Osama Bin Laden. Yet, our Government and Military have remained silent.  With hundreds of unanswered questions, the GoP and the Military have lost the opportunity to tackle the bull by the horns. when it missed an occasion to discuss the Operation in the morning.  Rather than acknowledging the role of Pakistan and her military, the Foreign Office snubbed the United States by hinting they operated unilaterally.  I find it rather hard to believe that US Helicopters were in Pakistani Airspace, conducted a 40 minute “solo” mission, and escaped with the body of Osama Bin Laden –without the knowledge of the GoP or Pakistan Military.

By choosing to remain quiet, the GoP and the Pakistan Military have allowed the conspiracy theorists (found in abundance) and international media to construe their own stories and draw their own conclusions.  I cannot fathom the fact that on such a monumental news story, the GoP and the Military would revert to silence. However, this morning President Zardari deemed it necessary to publish an Opinion piece in the Washington Post.  Yet again, President Zardari assumed it was a better approach in reaching out to the American public rather than quashing the fears and queries of Pakistani’s.  Sending out bland statements (by PM Gilani and MoFA) should have been done once the President or Prime Minister addressed the citizens of Pakistan and the world.  It has been more than 24 hours since Bin Laden was shot dead and we are still awaiting a public statement by the President, Prime Minister, Defence Minister or Senior Military Officials.

In a globalized day and age, where social media has brought down dictatorships and reinforced democratic ideals, the sheer recklessness of those in power is mind-boggling.  The tranquility of the Government has only garnered more suspiciousness and resentment towards a fledgling and weak leadership.  At a time when the whole world is eyeing Pakistan for a statement on the death of its most notorious terrorist, it is shocking that Zardari or Prime Minister Gilani would remain silent.  With plenty of damage done to Pakistan’s reputation over the course of 24 hours, I sure hope Firdous Awan has her talking points ready for a media and country that still needs answers to many questions.

Times Square!

Just like the square itself, the news item of a lunatic Faisal Shahzad trying to set a car on fire has attracted millions of viewers.  Without diving into the act itself, the consequences are more important.  Various conspiracy theories have arisen from the right-wing in Pakistan who are exclaiming that with the help of the botched bombing the United States are going to force the Pakistan Army into North Waziristan, whereas the left are trying to break the link between Shahzad and a nation of 180 million. After all, Shahzad is a US citizen who has been residing in the United States for many years.  In an already fractured relationship, Obama and his administration need to tread rather carefully as much anger, resentment and fear lies below the surface. Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations has done a wonderful job of explaining where Pakistan is coming from.  From being articulate to comprehensive, a much needed voice needs to be aired in both Pakistan and the United States to continue strengthening the Pak-US relationship.

I apologize in advance, for some reason I cannot add a flash video here. Please do follow the link to see the interview of Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations.  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6471329n&tag=api

Sick and Tired!

By: Agha Haider Raza

Over the past week Pakistan has read many different news items. From the passing of the 18th amendment to the bomb blast at the US Consulate, much is happening. Some may say the stories are for the betterment of our country while others may disagree. In my mind the successful visit of the Foreign Minister and his entourage to the United States gave Pakistan some much needed positive press. However, the current witch-hunt carried out by the Chief Justice and the ugly battle over the reopening of Zardari’s corruption cases has embarrassed many of those who fought for the independence of the judiciary. Now do not get me wrong, as much as I enjoyed protesting on the streets of Lahore for the reinstatement of the nation’s top judge, I can’t fathom Mr. Iftikhar’s current agenda of picking and choosing his enemies. When will we be able to see actual results from the “democratically” elected officials and the “independent” judiciary we as a nation have struggled to achieve for 62 years? When will stop pointing fingers and vilifying those whom we disagree with? Or have we gotten used to being stuck in this whirlpool of revengeful politics. Honestly, we Pakistanis have gotten sick and tired of the lies and broken promises.