The mainspring of the fear that made Pakistan ‘land
of the pure’ for a few months were these two factors which unfortunately could not
be capitalized upon. Very soon they started losing their impact. The government
in power could not live up to the requirements of these two fundamental factors
of crucial importance. They could neither lay a permanent bed rock for national
stability, nor could dispense individual and social justice, nor could handle
the economy of the country whereby the citizens earned their livelihood, nor
could do any thing to reinforce and strengthen the economic structure of the
economy nor could sustain the near perfect state of law and order achieved
initially. A rare opportunity of establishing a high order of good governance
was let slip out of hands through neglect, ignorance, wastage of precious time
in dealing with trifles and pursuing stupid economic, social, political and
defence policies. Let us take account of them one by one:
Their
first absurd measure sabotaged the price structure of the country. Military
that held reigns of governance was unaware of the basic law of economics that
price level at any given time reflects the equilibrium between the forces of
demand and supply. Any outside interference disturbs this happy state with
highly unhappy consequences for the people. Orders were issued to bring the
general prices level down to the absolute minimum that was much below the cost
price of the merchandize. As a result Pakistan witnessed a buying spree of
unprecedented spectacle. Within days the stores became empty due to this loot
sale. The shopkeepers quickly shifted their stocks-in-trade to safer godowns.
Military’s aim was to serve the interest of the masses but it actually harmed
their welfare as well as the business community. Internal trade in the country came
to a standstill and what ever was still available could be had at black market
prices. As such a new vice of untold
consequences was born to afflict the society at military’s hands. It was an act
of individual, social and economic injustice of big magnitude. Military lost
much of its credibility at the very beginning.
Their second absurdity was wastage of their time
and energy in dealing with trifles like putting wire gauzes around the mutton
shops, demolishing the encroachments, throwing the small time vendors out of business,
getting hold of the truck drivers for minor traffic defaults, catching the low
grade government employees for accepting bribes and so on. All this did not
measure up to the high stature of the military that the common man had been
romanticizing ever since Independence. His disappointment was limitless.
The third absurdity took birth in the form of
military courts which to start with managed to stick to their disciplined ways
of life but very soon gave in to the crafty and corrupt ways of ‘bloody’
civilians. Both of them conveniently melted into each other and became one
inseparable whole. One most important pillar of good governance broke loose,
fell flat on the ground and lay there broken in bits and pieces.
The fourth absurdity was witnessed during
Indo-Pakistan War of 1965. Those who launched Operation Gibraltar in Kashmir
against the advice of the President Ayub, were of the firm conviction that
India will not dare to cross the International border. Why they thought so and
why they were permitted to embark on an obviously foolish venture to run in to
an all out war which Pakistan was unable to sustain for more than just
seventeen days and which put the integrity of the country at stake. Break up of
East Pakistan in 1971 that India engineered though well planned strategy was
the direct result of this folly. Good governance could keep the two wings
together. All inter-wing problems could be settled amicably but unfortunately
either they fell to criminal neglect of the Federal government or were treated
too lightly that helped a state rebel like Mujib to come up and play in Indian
hands to the detriment of Pakistan’s integrity. The rating of the state of
governance in Pakistan had dipped to the lowest ebb.
The fifth and decisive blow to the good governance
in Pakistan was delivered by Ayub himself when he handed over power to Yahya,
who was a well known debauch a boozer, and a womanizer, a person of low morals
and poor intellect. The handling of state’s affairs under him was prostituted
to deteriorate to the point where it became a brothel house branded governance.
Since then, the short history of Pakistan is
replete with a bee line of absurdities. It is fashionable to blame the military
dictators for misrule but what went wrong with the leaders who claimed to have
returned to power with heavy mandate of the people. Why both of them, Nawaz
Sharif and Benazir, each one appeared and disappeared twice. The reason was
that the sham feudalistic democratic process that had put them at the helm of
affairs was also responsible for throwing them out of power. It functioned as
the agent of democratic order to start with and ended up with the conversions
of democrats into dictators. Both of them assumed unlimited discretionary
authority to follow their personal whims with complete disregard to the
country’s Constitution, public opinion or interest of the state. Had there been
some regard for such constraints they would not have indulged in large scale
corruptions that led to their down fall. It was purely a dictatorial mindset of
Nawaz Sharif whereby he decided not to permit the army chief Pervaiz Musharraf
to land when he was returning from Sri Lanka by air until he installed a new
Chief in his place. Why couldn’t he think of some constitutional option to make
his wish come true? It was so because despite peoples’ heavy mandate he was not
the product of a true democratic process. Similarly, Benazir along with her
hubby treated Pakistan a vanquished country
and looted it mercilessly with both hands. Only a callous and heartless
dictator with little respect for the common man and the country could have done
that.