book of aphorisms by a Pakistani lawyer

Pakistan

Pakistanis show habitual humi]ity before power and arrogance inculcated in them by mysticism and earlier Arab conquest in Sindh and by a millennium’s history of Afghan, Turk and Mongo] invasions from the rugged and mountainous regions of the North to the fertile plains of the Punjab and central India. The habit of submission to power was reinforced with seventeen attacks of Mahmood Ghaznavi in the beginning of the 11th century AD on the Hindu Temple of Somnath in Raj is tan from where he looted six tons of gold in ornaments. Now this docility continues in supinely accepting various martial laws imposed from time to time without a squeal or even a whimper, and the loot continues.
Pakistan will be severely damaged by the religious onslaught and political control of the orthodox. First, the country will be hurtled back to the middle ages in thinking modes and ways oflife and will become an anachronism, like Saudi Arabia, in the modem times of scientific power and its enlightened use. Second, the West will not permit nuclear assets in the hands of Muslim fanatics whom they see as terrorists and whose fond motto, they believe, is preference of permanent life in Paradise after suicidal death and dispatch of infidels to he]J. President Bush, the head of the only hyper power of a Christian countiy – and himself a born-again Christian – has said that he was confident Pakistan’s nuclear facilities, which is the only Muslim country in the world possessing such facilities, are secure with the present military leadership. This shows his obvious concern for these weapons in the right hands; and the orthodox leadership, like Iran or Taliban will not be trustworthy in this regard. Should the extremists come in power in Pakistan which is not an unlikely event, after seeing their sterling performances of spreading obscurantism, the West may demand dismantling of the nuclear facilities. The obduracy or inflexibility against such demands may lead to equally worst consequences, as happened in Afghanistan and Iraq. Saudis, the rabid Muslim extremists, also know this, but their princely hierarchy is safe as long as they have abundant oil, which they go on supplying to the West without demur and without owning sensitive nuclear weapons and finally without creating even a doubt in Bush’s mind that Saudis intend to possess nuclear weapons, as he started attacking the weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Husain’s intangible intentions after failing to find them in the tangible Iraq.
The story of Pakistan is a tale of grievances and tenuous national unity. Pakistan was created on the Muslim grievance of Hindu domination. East Pakistan separated as Bangladesh against the Bengali grievance of Punjabi hegemony. An entire leadership in Sindh evolved on the minority refugee grievance of exploitation by the majority. The citizens of Karachi complain that Islamabad was built by ignoring basic infrastructure for a modem and prospering port city in Karachi. Now the entire country has grievance against the stronghold of armed forces on the civilians with coercive military power and Baluchistan is teetering on the brink of insurgency on account of the usurpation of Baluchi mineral resources without compensation. The property and commercial wealth of the country is being turned into military and ex-military assets, in addition to the ex-military superiors, controlling powerful and lucrative bureaucratic and corporate jobs to the exclusion of deserving civilians. Substantial agricultural holdings are with military and ex-military people, who also hold fourteen hundred superior jobs in civilian government. A country conceived, created and continuing on the economic and political grievances all the way since its inception – without positive national bonds which could cement it, excepting the weak and regressive reliance on religion which failed in the face of Bangladeshi revolt-has not a bright hope of mutual faith and unity. Its people are unfortunate, as the house is still kept divided by the powerful vested interests, even after the expiry of six decades. The country carries on integrated as an arrangement of economic conveniences for use and profit, and with applied military power, and not as a federating entity functioning for the prosperity of all its units.
In the sixty years of Pakistan history, the crooked, the cunning and the powerful have made fortunes with impunity.
A new constitution is contrived in Pakistan in which a servile cabinet of ministers governs, a docile parliament rules and the dominant aimed forces reign.
The excursions of periodic impositions of martial laws in Pakistan with hegemony of the large province and of the retired generals and brigadiers in the high posts of government services and corporations, repression of minority groups and suppression of their rights must irrevocably cease to save the country from the strife and point of no return.
A military junta must know that a citizen expects his country to do its duty by him, as much as he must do his duty by it, as a patriot. There is no one way traffic in life and there is a limit to the deprivations of the rights of smaller provinces and the economic domination of a large province, beyond which the lava of frustration, despondency and discord will burst forth and bum and sweep away the good with the bad, which wi II be a lamentable tragedy.
In Pakistan, we have had spurious democracies since its birth and the chances of a vigorous, • liberal and dignified democracy are rather bleak, given the greed of unscrupulous politicians,
both of cities and coming from the landed aristocracy, the opportunism of armed forces, the impotence of judiciary and the naivety of the electorate.
Freedom in the modern world is economic freedom. If we, in Pakistan, wish to preserve it, all the citizens, both male and female, must acquire the scientific and other requisite education, which can come about only with liberal and secular knowledge- such as study of the evolution of man in biology from ape – like beings to a paragon of physical and mental form gleaned from fossil evidence – to become inventive in technology and innovative in the management of trade and business, like Chinese, Koreans and Japanese, who do not allow Confucianism, Buddhism and Shintoism to meddle in their public lives and have relegated their clerics to the background, so that the ignoramuses may not affect their progress and well-being.
Pakistan is a great country to live in, if you are an elite of the class frequently in power through military dictatorship. You getall the undeserved benefits of the society.
If we wish to save Pakistan from disintegration, which will be a tragedy of great magnitude, we must learn to live like equals and not like masters and servants with three provinces dancing to the martial tune of one province.
In Pakistan, we have had scarce liberty, little equality, no dignity and surfeit of dictatorships.
In Pakistan, nearly half of our big white chiefs have come in uniform.
In Pakistan, every person has to suffer mullahs, martial laws and moratoriums of IMF.
It is assumed with the approval of many parents in Pakistan that if their children aspire to a public office, they have noble intentions to serve the country through corruption.
Whom gods wish to favour in Pakistan, they first make him a popular political leader. He is then made a criminal and ignoble on the charges of corruption and kicked out of the country with tons of ill-gotten money to enjoy.
In Pakistan, we have had sham democracies since its birth and the chances of vigorous, liberal and dignified democracy are rather bleak, given the greed of unscrupulous politicians, (both of the cities and coming from the landed aristocracy), the opportunism of armed forces, the impotency of judiciary and the naivity of the electorate.
For a successful democracy, certain basic requirements are conditions precedent. The most important are a knowledgeable and homogeneous middle class, an unoppressed and articulate opposition, a free and unbiased press without preconceived agenda, liberally educated political leaders responsive to an observant electorate, which is un swayed by slogans and a truly independent judiciary. Otherwise, democracy is a farce and a devise to hoodwink the ignorant masses, who are gullible enough to be easily influenced and cheated;
Democracy is not a perfect form of government. No human institution can be perfect. But democracy is better among all other forms of government, which have been tried and found wanting. However, for democracy not to be a farce which it is in the most underdeveloped countries, a responsive and responsible government is required and not merely a representative government.Our electorate do not know the value of their votes and the importance of democracy. They vote in favour of catching phrases of rabble rousers. The charismatic personalities control their sympathies from the safety of foreign countries, including influential and rich persons of their rustic areas along with rabid clerics, masquerading as enlightened Messiah, who browbeat them emotionally in the name of religion from pulpits and in public meetings. The national issues of common and social weal are seldom raised. The voters are not overly concerned with them, excepting common items of food, oil and electricity.Without putting some pre-requisites in place to create conducive conditions for sustained growth of healthy democratic institutions, we will and are falling victims to the misleading Western propaganda that democracy in form only is good enough to adopt and will work as a panacea for our political predicaments, which it is not. Any uncritical adoption, sans drastic modifications to synchronise democracy with our social and cultural milieu, is a sure path to failure and decadence. For example, ways and means have to be devised to keep at bay the unscrupulous politicians with money or sectarian or tribal monopolies to contest elections, scions of the landed gentry, fanatic clerics and the retired self-seeking personnel of the army, who have all played havoc with democracy in PakistanThe West knows that a mature democracy, as practiced by them, requires tolerance, homogeneous, large and an educated middle class, prosperous economy, awakened electorate living mainly in the cities and towns, an unbiased and free press and a truly independent judiciary. All this is not readily possible in the underdeveloped countries, including Pakistan . The West still insists on our implementing a hollow form of democracy which is an abuse of this institution and which we practice to avoid the odium of autocracy, though, in reality, our elected and popular leaders are not completely free from the odium of autocrats. The reason for such insistence is that the West, inspite of its contrary protestations, wishes to keep us economically backward and on the defensive always apologizing for not achieving the impossible in robust democracy. They have no economic clout on China, which is still governed by the hierarchy of communist party system, to compel it to adopt the Western representative democracy. But the countries under the economic yoke of the World Bank and IMF are constantly reminded to keep on adhering to this counter-productive form on the pain of economic sanctions.In order to escape from the vicious circle of failure and frustration, a long term plan must be prepared and implemented for adoption and only an enlightened military ruler without any additional military baggage can do this by unilateral changes in the Constitution, as the so-called elected members of the Parliament will not act against their vested interests. One way out, in outline, is to introduce special colleges or academies of excellence for politicians supervised by the persons of unimpeachable character, having independence equal to the superior judiciary for unimpeded exercise of their functions and authority without fear or favour, and for training exceptionally talented groups of candidates for four years’ additional and rigorous studies of post graduation at the public expense. Such selected and intensively qualified persons, with liberal emoluments for life, should alone be permitted to contest elections under continuous and relentless accountability. If not the elector, the elected must be ilitists.Details can be worked out, if there is the national will to bring basic and meaningful changes in our retrogressive political system not suited to our objective conditions. Plato conceived this system initially to create excellence in public life. For underdeveloped countries, like Pakistan, an improved and modem version of that great philosopher’s vision is a dire necessity, which will eventually lead to prosperity and glory of the Asian spirit. Lee kuan Yew has done this with Singapore, a tiny Chinese city state.

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Rasheed A. Akhund

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