Under normal circumstances, the military and civil
bureaucracies are two different and independent organizations. Their respective
responsibilities are well defined which seldom overlap. Military’s sole task is
to defend the sovereignty, integrity and independence of the state Its
bureaucracy keeps the defense system tied up to enable it to function as a
compact organic whole. The civil bureaucracy provides coordinated back up support
to social, economic. Commercial, industrial matters in addition to the
maintenance of law and order in the country and looks after its foreign
affairs. The two bureaucracies come into contact with each other only in times
of emergency when law and order gets out of hand and the Military is required
to perform its constitutional function in aid of civil power. Such occasions
rarely arise in developed countries where democratic institutions have come of
age, literacy rate is hundred percent and people are well aware of their rights
arid duties as responsible citizens. Circumstances in Pakistan, however. are
somewhat different.
The system that has come to stay in Pakistan over a
period of time is based upon closely interconnected inter-relationship of the
civil and military bureaucracies. A vibrant bureaucracy acts as a change agent
i.e. it brings about changes to strengthen the society as a whole through
equitable distribution of wealth and resources among the people and their share
in political power and prestige. Unfortunately these two bureaucracies have, in
collusion with each other, worked to keep the masses in a state of deprivation,
in which they ever were, and helped a small privileged class to usurp all
political powers, economic benefits and social status. The United Nations
Development Program affirms that while Asia has covered miles of economic
progress, Pakistan has lagged far behind.
Pakistan’s economic, political and social structure
is patently feudal which is composed of the jagirdar, the sardar, the wadera,
the khan, the chaudhry, the industrialist and the mullah who has also become a
religious wadera. Pakistan came into existence in the name of Islam that
preaches the attainment of distributive justice’ in every sphere of the life of
the individual and the society. The mullah had opposed the advent of Pakistan
by sabotaging the Pakistan Movement as best as he could. He continues to work
against the larger interests of the people of Pakistan. F=His finest hour
struck when General Zia-ul-Haq usurped power in July 1977 and turned the
country into a veritable theocratic state with the mullah as its high priest.
Mullah’s fortunes rose sky high with the start of jihad in Afghanistan when
Russians invaded it. Pakistani mullah himself stayed behind but pushed
thousands of illiterate Muslim youngsters into Afghanistan to fight the holy
war. The Russians were pushed out of Afghanistan but the jihadis were not to
relent. They returned home along with their non-Pakistani compatriots and started
committing acts of terrorism in the name of religion. While mullah stayed in
the background he and his religious parties extended full moral and material
support to them. His stance continued to be anti-Pakistan. Now his ambition is
to take over Pakistan through violent means and establish Taliban-like barbaric
regime here.
The mullah, with his self-concocted Islamic views
ensured the perpetuation of feudalism by declaring that the right to own
unlimited wealth and property was quite Islamic. This verdict legitimized what
was illegitimate as per numerous Quranic commandments. This declaration endeed
the mullah to the tiny elitist feudal class that consisted of the jagirdar, the
industrialists as well as civil and military bureaucrats who also held
political powers. In his verdict the rnullah gave no importance to the teeming
millions and left them to rot in a state of abject poverty.
The feudal keep the masses illiterate and keep them
out of their share in nation’s wealth and political power. Thus the elite
classes face virtually no competition in higher spheres of social, political
and economic activity. They draw up high sounding plans for educating the
nation but they don’t really intend to implement them. Despite their grandiose
schemes of devolution of power down to the lowest levels they don’t really mean
it. It is so because they think their own survival lies in keeping the masses
illiterate and politically powerless As many as five elections held since 1985
returned only those legislatures to the Assemblies who were committed to retain
the feudal-dominated political system in the name of democracy. Even the sworn
political enemies of each other were in full agreement in the denial of
equitable rights to the people in nation’s wealth, property and political
power.
The power to rule the country and usurp its
resources by the military bureaucracy started with the assassination of Mr
Liaquat Au Khan in 1951. The Constituent Assembly was dissolved in 1954 with
the blessings of the Commander-in-Chief General Ayub Khan. His action was
endorsed by the Judiciary under the doctrine of necessity. However, the normal
political process came to a complete halt in 1958 with the usurpation of power
by General Ayub Khan. In July 1977, it was General Zia-ul-Haq who usurped power
to become the head of the state. In 1989, the Army Chief General Aslam Beg did
not permit the revival of Junejo Assembly which had been earlier dissolved by
General Zia. Then General Beg himself helped President Gulam Ishaque Khan, an
ex-bureaucrat, to dissolve Nawaz Sharif Assembly till he was himself sent home
by General Abdul Waheed in July 1993 along with Nawaz Sharif. Then came the
year 1999 when circumstances prompted Army Chief General Pervaiz Musharraf to
depose Nawaz Sharif and take over the reins of the government.
The fact is that Military bureaucracy has its own
jurisdiction to function while the civil bureaucracy has an altogether a
distinct field of it own. What makes them meddle into each other’s domain is
the all pervasive feudalism which is undemocratic, anti-Islamic, inhuman,
unethical and immoral. It is autocratic. Without scruples, principles and
higher human values the autocracy tends to project the darkest side of the
human nature. All anti-social customs and vices like wani, jirga sanctioned
gang rapes, the marriage of daughters with the holy Quran, are the hall marks
of the feudalistic culture.
The nation has been languishing in the grip of
feudalism for the last many decades. Power play is the favourite pastime of the
feudal. The first casualty of feudalism was dismemberment of the country and
conversion of East Pakistan in to Bangladesh. The second is the state of
nationwide turbulence that has overtaken the country from end to end. It is the
handiwork of the feudal who are hell bent to snatch power from each other. Its
third casualty is the common man who has fallen victim to poverty and
ever-rising cost of living. The fourth casualty is the ideal for which Pakistan
came into existence. Today no one talks of the objective that formed the basis
of the demand for Pakistan.
Pakistan’s polity is in a state of
flux. However, such instability cannot remain in vogue for ever even though
presently not a single anti-feudalism force exits that may give hope for a
better tomorrow. Rut circumstances are at work, though quietly, for a big
change that may, in times to come, develop into full-scale revolution to put an
end to feudalism. It will relieve the civil and military bureaucracies to work within
their respective parameters. That will pave the way for the advent of a truly
representative f6rm of democratic government of the people to establish an
Islamic Welfare State in the country. It will confine the two bureaucracies to
their respective jurisdictions and discourage them to indulge in any kind of
future adventurism.