The Rediff Special / J N Dixit
With the army's dominance in Pakistan, one should expect the adversarial
distance in Indo-Pakistan relations to continue
The Council has come into being just weeks before Nawaz Sharief
comes to power. Sharief has to establish a working relationship
with this council despite the majority which he has in the national
and provincial assemblies.
The election results may not lead to
the creation of a stable government in Pakistan, because Sharief
has to deal with a powerful presidency and entrenched army establishment
in the party structure. The situation stands compounded by the
loss of faith in political system, articulated in recent weeks
by the political leaders of Pakistan themselves including acting
prime minister Miraj Khaled.
Leghari, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharief
and Khaled all have been acrimoniously flagellating the quality
of politics and political institutions of Pakistan. That a known
democratic leader like Miraj Khaled lamented 'Pakistan being
a crowd rather than a nation' and suggesting that salvation
perhaps lies in letting the army manage the country is a tragic
commentary on Pakistan's political predicament and at the same
time a justification for the role given to the armed forces through
the CDNS.
Indications are
that the people of Pakistan, tired of skullduggeries of their
political leaders, generally endorse this assessment of their
acting prime minister. This being so, the council's creation
is not going to be objected to by the people of Pakistan barring
some marginal exceptions. Pakistan's major allies, the United States
and Saudi Arabia, are not averse to this situation, because the
stability and military reliability of Pakistan is more important
to them strategically than Pakistan remaining a genuine democracy.
What are the implications for India? Our political parties and
leaders should be alert and conscious about the implications of
the legitimisation of the Pakistan army's role as the arbiter of
Pakistani politics.
The corruption, the maladministration and
the increasing dependence on our armed forces to manage our internal
crises can generate a feeling amongst our army leaders also that
if they are entrusted so frequently with the responsibilities
of governance without the final decision making power, it would
be more rational and justified for themselves to have the political
and constitutional role of decision-making.
Though our more successful
experiment in democracy may delay the process, this orientation
can occur if we do not get our act together soon enough in our
democratic framework.
With the army's dominance in Pakistani policy-making processes,
one should expect the adversarial distance in Indo-Pakistan relations
to continue, though with one positive possibility. If the armed
forces lend some internal stability to Pakistan, Pakistan may
be less inclined to be adventurist towards India though Pakistan
would continue to be interventionist in our affairs when it suits
it. We must be alert to this latter possibility.
The Pak army
becoming a cardinal element in the Pakistani state structure is
a warning to us about the importance of maintaining the integrity
and functional efficiency of our democracy. We, as a people, and
our politicians should heed this warning and revive our conscious
commitment to the Constitution which we gave ourselves 46 years
ago.
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