On Saturday March 16th 2013 Pakistan’s ruling government completed its tenure in office. Whilst much is being made of this historical moment, as no other government in the country’s history has ever finished its full term, many are arguing Democracy has prevailed and Pakistan is on the transition to no longer being a failed state.
The best the outgoing government can muster regarding its term in office is the fact it completed its term. In spite of the economy being in shambles, a situation made worse by collapsing infrastructure in the power and energy sectors, high levels of insecurity and corruption – the government stood by as Pakistan’s problems went from bad to worse. The out-going government and its cronies believe, in spite of this long list of national failures (made even worse by the out-going government’s incompetence), in spite of this, they survived a whole term and this is their success. The 336 national assembly members can only be described as incompetent, corrupt and a gang of failures who were only interested in lining their own pockets. Some of them will disappear into the oblivion and take their spoils with them, others, who have not had enough will be gearing up to reclaim their seats in the hope of having another go at looting the nation.
In 2008 the PPP led government on a wave of sympathy won the most votes in an election we are constantly reminded of being democratic. There are three areas the democratically elected government needed to tackle at the time, the faltering economy, the nation’s precarious energy situation and security.
Economy
Asif Ali Zardari inherited the mess Musharraf created, which he proceeded to only make worse. Zardari accelerated much of Musharraf’s policies which were bankrupting the nation. During the PPP 5 year term no roadmap for economic revival or solutions to the economic challenges faced by the country was presented. The absence of any roadmap led to a number of short term tactical responses to avert economic collapse. Zardari like Musharraf resorted to external finance and the failed policies of the IMF. In November 2008 an agreement was made with the IMF for a $7.6 billion loan. Inflation during the last 5 years has been in double digit territory, this only happened once before in Pakistan’s history in 1977. Life for the normal person got worse as Zardari’s term continued
Energy
The rolling blackouts in Pakistan have become a common occurrence and have paralysed industry and any sense of normal life in the country. Yousuf Raza Gilani announced the government energy policy in April 2010 as many took to the streets to riot due to the government’s failure to solve the energy crisis. The best the government came up with was measures that included extending the official weekend from one to two days, early closure of street markets, the banning of neon lights, allowing air conditioners to be switched on only after 11 am, limiting wedding celebrations to three hours and a 50% cut in power to government offices. Under US pressure the Zardari government stalled Iran’s offer of gas exports at subsidised rates.
Pakistan’s electricity problem is fundamentally due to successive governments privatising power generation, this led to a few private owners, foreign and local, to charge high prices for this important resource. As central government itself is in debt to these privatised companies for its power use, this has severely impacted their corporate profits and as a result they reduced power generation to reduce their costs and maintain their profits. This is why load shedding takes place for most of the day in most parts of Pakistan. The PPP government did not even bother to deal with this problem during its term.
Security
The internal security of Pakistan has gone from bad to worse. Karachi is now a war zone with bullet-ridden corpses turning up every day, victims of a relentless turf war among politically connected gangs. The PPP fought on the streets of Karachi with the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Quami Movement, even as it has sat merrily in the coalition government with them in Islamabad. However under the PPP government military actions have stepped up in the tribal areas with the government being the mouth piece.
America enlisted the services of Pervez Musharraf in its Afghan war and as it became marred in an insurgency with the Taliban it turned Pakistan to increase its military presence in the tribal areas and began utilising drone strikes. Prior to the Zardari government coming to power there was 8 drone attacks. There were 35 in 2008, when Zardari came to power, 53 in 2009, increasing to a maximum of 117 in 2010, 64 in 2011, 48 in 2012 and a minimum of 9 when the PPP government was dissolved. The US regards all males killed in a drone attack as combatants, even though the vast majority of the thousands killed in drone attacks are civilians. The consequence of this has led to many tribes venting their fury at the Pakistani regime and armed forces, whom they view as facilitating the American crusader attacks against their elderly, children and women.
Zardari and Kiyani facilitated this by providing bases, conducting operations in the Swat area and tribal areas, whilst the Zardari government gave a free reign to US forces to operate freely in the country including private contractors.
Clearly, the actions of the government are the source of insecurity. The legacy of the democratically elected government, where they excelled and out shone previous regime’s was in corruption and facilitating America’s agenda in the region.
Corruption
A Transparency International Pakistan report outlined that poor governance and corruption over the past five years had cost the nation more than $177 billion, including through the illegal sale of millions of hectares of land at less than 5% of market value. Transparency International calculated Pakistan lost more than Rs8.5 trillion, $94 billion, in corruption, tax evasion and bad governance during the last four years of Yousuf Raza Gillani’s tenure. Gillani’s refusal to re-open corruption cases against Zardari led to him being found guilty of contempt of court and his replacement was Raja Pervez Ashraf (Raja rental) who took bribes in 2010 as minister for water and power. Transparency international confirmed the Zardari-Gillani 5 year government term has been the most corrupt in Pakistan’s history.
US-Pakistan Axis
The US has worked extremely hard to focus Pakistan’s foreign policy and military on the tribal areas. A handful of traitors, including Kayani and Zardari have reoriented Pakistan to the tribal areas. Pakistan’s armed forces have now been reoriented away from India towards the tribal areas. Zardari at a national level gave India the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ (MFN) status to normalise relations which was conducive to peace with India and shift attention from India to the tribal areas. There is overwhelming evidence that Kiyani-Zardari have worked to shape domestic opinion against the tribal region through false flag attacks in urban areas of Pakistan in order to create and inflame the war in the tribal areas. The Raymond Davis affair proved this overwhelmingly.
The Curse of Democratic Elections
The problem the US and its traitors within the civilian and military forces face is everyone involved in nations political medium is dripping with corruption, incompetence and nepotism. With the end of the PPP’s term another selection of politicians have exposed Pakistan’s broken system. The search for new faces to join those who have been loyal to the US began over a years ago, with the army overseeing the rise of Imran Khan as the new face of Pakistan’s politics. His rise was carefully choreographed which included large demonstrations highlighting him as the only savour for the country. He was forced to reach out to other politicians in order to strengthen PTI which led to many lackeys from the Musharraf era join PTI. All of this had a detrimental effect on his message as many wondered how independent he was after allowing many politicians into his party that previously the PTI campaigned against.
The emergence of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri was to breathe life into Pakistan’s failing system of democracy. Qadri’s demands were limited to some token changes and not comprehensive change. He called for a return to the real constitution of Pakistan and a caretaker government that would implement justice as outlined by the constitution. Qadri effectively called only for a change in personnel and the maintenance of the system which has held Pakistan hostage for over 50 years. Qadri even outlined that most of what he called for was already contained in the constitution and electoral laws, but are just not implemented. He denied that he is trying to end Pakistan’s democracy, “I just want to put true democracy on track,” he said. As politicians of different colures dance around democracy Qadri merely become another player in Pakistan’s corrupt and failed democratic system. Qadri presented no grand plan or polices but stuck to a narrow set of reforms to the countries electoral laws.
The arrival of Pervez Musharraf into the mix has been for the same reason – to maintain the current system. Musharraf on his arrival in Karachi made clear his plans to take Pakistan back to his dark period, when he ruled the country with an iron fist, he said at Karachi airport: “I have come back for you. I want to restore the Pakistan I left.”
The election commission of Pakistan has been in talks with the army under the guise of security. During the elections the army will be deployed to polling stations. This is an ominous sign that the army will work to ensure certain new loyal faces emerge during the elections.
Conclusions
The fundamental problem with Pakistan is its political medium is dominated by dynastic families, feudal landlords and opportunist groups, individuals and politicians. Their sole aim is to get to power and enrich themselves irrespective of the consequences. When in power they legislate in a way to protect and maintain their own interests. Legislative sovereignty is the cornerstone of democracy.
The call for a return to Pakistan’s secular constitution of old which enshrines parliament with legislative capability is nothing more than a call to maintain the status quo.