BEFORE the imposition of martial law on Nov 3, Pakistan was
struggling with two critical challenges to its political stability.One was
the subversion of civilian, representative rule, an issue the
nation-state had confronted since 1958 when the first martial law
was imposed on Pakistan.The other challenge had its roots in the
more recent, but far more bloody vintage of the 1980s. Militancy that exploits religion, which incubated with Gen Ziaul Haq’s security apparatus and state ideology, has grown into a full-scale terrorist insurgency today. Major portions of the Tribal Areas, the NWFP, some territory in the Northern Areas, and now two-thirds of Swat, have ceded ground to non-state actors, both foreign and local.Today the country is back in the quagmire of both dictatorship and terrorism. Gen Musharraf has once again called a martial law an emergency, as he did in 1999. An emergency suspends fundamental human rights, but falls short as an instrument that can send the judiciary packing. Judges cannot be made to swear fresh oaths of allegiance, and therefore may not provide the judgments required to prop unconstitutional measures.An emergency does not require a PCO for its imposition. A PCO, or Provisional Constitution Order, entails a suspension of the Constitution of the state, substituting it with a martial law, which can only be imposed by a chief of army staff. Under a martial law, there is no source of justice other than PCO courts, and dictators are provided a veneer of legal cover. So let’s first call a spade a spade. Pakistan is under martial law today, not emergency rule. The assemblies, whether constitutional until Nov 15 or under the PCO, are alive so that they can provide a democratic window-dressing.The PCO cabinet has already given its rubberstamp to the emergency, and the military’s surrogates in parliament pushed it through the National Assembly as well. All these acts are post-PCO and have no bearing on the facts on the ground that Gen Musharraf has already created. There is one man-rule in the country and that is propped only by the use of force.Which is why Gen Musharraf’s announcement of a general election in February and his stepping down as army chief before that has been received with general scepticism.The reason why Pakistan is under martial law today is not so that terrorism can be contained as the disingenuous promulgation order says. It is under martial law so that the possibility of an adverse judgment by the former benches of the newly independent superior judiciary on Gen Musharraf’s eligibility to hold two offices could be avoided. Nothing more, nothing less.If terrorism was the issue, why are peaceful opponents of martial law and terrorism being detained and brutalised all over the country? If terrorism was the objective, why were Asma Jehangir, Aitzaz Ahsan, I.A. Rehman, Iqbal Haider and hundreds of lawyers like PPP’s Ahsan Bhoon, and civil society activists detained? Do they look like the sort of people who run into crowded buses and buildings to maim and kill in the name of religion?Why are wanted criminals allowed to hold press conferences openly threatening the life of Ms Benazir Bhutto for her anti-terrorism clarity? Why have 25 terrorists been released after the imposition of martial law? Why is a peaceful tourist backwater like Swat overrun by foreign and Pakistani militants? Is the state only able to establish its writ now through the law of the jungle?If terrorism is the objective, why has the investigation on the massacre of Oct 19 in Karachi not been treated as an urgent priority? Why was evidence hastily cleaned up, and why is a Pakistan-led independent police inquiry not being assisted by Scotland Yard or the FBI as many enquiries have been in the past? Why is the death of 160 innocent people who were victims of terror being treated like a non-event? Do the culprits not need to be nabbed?If terrorism was the objective why has the independent media been blacked out? Why have cable networks been jammed and why have satellite alternatives been the object of crackdowns by the state? Why has the print media been given press advice, and why is a new ‘code of conduct’ being formulated by the regime to gag the press? Why has Pakistan been thrust back into the dark days of the 1980s, when political leaders were either killed, tortured, arrested or driven underground?Clearly, none of the actions described have anything to do with curbing terrorism. In fact, quite to the contrary, history has taught us that Pakistan has only drifted towards crises during military clampdowns. Extremism and polarisation flourish when democracy is under lockdown.But structural and fundamental disconnects are not the only problem in such a scenario. When the sixth largest standing army in the world busies itself with manipulative politics through coups and double coups, it begins to lose focus. It loses ground in the public eye as an institution that rules the nation instead of serving it.The pseudo-jihadist officials who served Zia’s fundamentalist agenda by creating an anti-PPP political alliance in the shape of the IJI by funnelling state money into slush funds and diverted Afghan resistance petro-dollars into powerful non-state proxies are back in action today. They subverted the aims of a professional army and democratic politicians by using intelligence resources to serve their own covert agenda then, and are trying to do the same again today with the same line-up of reactionary political proxies.The opposition is gearing up to challenge this reversal from a transition to democracy. The PPP was the only party that sees a peaceful transition to democracy as a priority. Its negotiations with the regime were for movement towards democracy, not to prop a dictatorship.The PPP chairperson’s return to Pakistan from Dubai was a brave step to lead the nation and the party in this moment of crisis. Her call to take the protest to the streets came after months of attempts to avoid more bloodshed, as Pakistan can ill-afford more instability. The PPP has been consistent in its position in calling for a restoration of the Constitution, the stepping down of General Musharraf as army chief, respect for the judiciary, a free and fair election on schedule, under a reconstituted Election Commission, and the removal of the curbs on the media as the only route to democracy.Slapping a ban on the PPP’s Rawalpindi rally will only roil the streets further, as will any bid to immobilise Ms Bhutto by house arrest before the Nov 13 long march from Lahore. The PPP showed its non-violent mass support on Oct 18, yet at the same time no one can doubt the party’s ability or record to resist dictatorships, as it stands firm in the face of bullets and persecution.The message to democratic politicians is that we will once again have to fight with our lives, on the streets, for the right to elect our own leadership and for the rule of law to return to Pakistan. Democracy and its attendant institutions have never been given a chance to take root, and now this is a fight for the survival of Pakistan. The military regime is no longer at a place where it can guarantee peace, stability and governance to the people of Pakistan alone, and for the first time, the whole world can see that this is true.

The writer is the central information secretary of the PPP.

http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/10/op.htm#1

Labels: pakistan, Pakistan People's Party, sherry rehman, true