Who will save Pakistan?

Military habits die hard. Recently former president of Pakistan General Parvez Musharraf was in India, wherein he unabashedly showered praise on army and security establishments. Praising the Army and the ISI at this juncture when both of them are getting exposed internationally for their duplicity, deception (of ally Americans) and dalliance with the very Taliban and extremists they are supposed to be fighting, gives the entire Pakistan scene a new dimension. The military is always there to exploit even the minutest mistake of the civilian government and make it as an excuse for the coup. Never ever have they let the government improve by trial and error method?

Weeks have passed since the deadly attack on Sri Lankan cricket team and Pakistani security agencies have no clue about the perpetrators of the attack. It all looks doubtful that the same agencies which boast of killing and arresting hundreds of Al Qaeda men cannot crack a case that happened at their heart. Besides there are too many similarities between the Lahore attack and the Mumbai attacks, which Pakistani security agencies of fearful of exposing. The terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore has blown a huge hole in the Pakistan’s contrived smugness over the Mumbai event. The way the TV shots have shown to the world how these perpetrators walked in and walked out coolly in performing their assigned task and the nature of the attack and its consequences seem to fall into a pattern.

On the other hand the civilian government too has not been lived up to the expectations of the public. The authoritarian presidential powers have not been curtailed and nothing has been done to arrest corruption, rising terrorism, inflations, poverty etc. To get the military accountable to civilian rule is a distant reality.

There is a question mark on the civilian government and fears of a second coup so close to the end of the military rule, is underlined by the pace of events that seem to be a replay of what happened over a few years before Musharraf booted out Sharif. First it was Sharif as the PM who with army’s help got Bhutto dismissed and put Zardari on trial. Then the Army twisted Sharif’s arms when it upstaged him and sponsored the Kargil conflict after he broke bread with Atal Behari Vajpayee and India and Pakistan seem to be opening a new chapter in their strained relations at the initiative of the NDA Government in New Delhi in 1998. Finally when the Kargil adventure boomeranged on the Army and Nawab Sharief had to take the rap for something he did not authorise, Musharraf ticked him off and sent him into exile just as earlier Sharief had ensured Benazir Bhutto’s self-exile.

Army is an omnipresent entity in Pakistan. These generals are always on the lookout of the option to legitimise their ascent to the governing structure of the country. They work stealthily and effectively. As is being seen at present, a ground is being prepared to project the stability of Army in Pakistan. It is being said and written that in this era of political corruption and all kinds of ills, only Army is the stable single entity. This notion will be later enhanced more with over blowing of wrongs of civilian government. Ultimately a coup will happen and it will be sold to people as necessary to save Pakistan. What is to be seen is how the same civil society that had created a public opinion to end the military regime and bring back the civilian rule would now reassert itself and stop the slide to dictatorship.

Pakistan army can go to any limits to get the power back in their hands. There are accusations and even proofs of army getting involved in the business of terrorism with close collaboration of Al Qaeda, Taliban and others. Army uses their services to enhance its position and indispensability. The high level collusion between the militant Jihadis and people in critical positions of the administration is daily becoming more and more evident. After all it was present Army Chief of Pakistan General Ashfaq Kayani who was quoted by American journalist David Sanger that Taliban are strategic assets to his forces. When any country’s army has such a respect for a terrorist group, only God can save that country.