You would
often hear this argument from the defense analysts on Talk Shows that the
civilians do not have the right to take decision on the key subjects like
Defense, Economy, Foreign Policy and Security and that is because they do not
have the capacity to do so. These defense analysts would most often sound like Mr. Know It All just like Ayaz Amir behaved last night on Nasim Zehra's show. First of all, this argument has no legal backing
whatsoever as according to the constitution of Pakistan, policy making is the
job of elected representatives of the country. Besides, this argument loses its
ground further when we look at the sorry state of affairs in all these
departments.
HumSub27Apr2014 by awaztoday101
It is a fact
that Foreign Policy has always been devised by the Khakis in Pakistan and when
we look at our relations with the rest of the world, we see a lone Pakistan
having no friends in the region and no appreciation from the international
community on our sacrifices in the War against Terrorism. Our Jawaans and
civilians have laid their lives for the world peace yet we seldom get any
recognition for our loss.
When we take
a look at the Security Policy of the country, we see an even worse situation.
Our establishment was responsible for creating the Jihadists in the Eighties
and today even the military establishment is not able to cope with them. Now
when they feel that they need to get rid of them, they are pushing for a
military operation against them. Although this may have been the last option,
and as a person I support military operation too, yet the economic cost of the
operation can be colossal. The dent it may put on our fragile economy, can be
detrimental for the little economic progress that we have made during the last
few months.
On the other
hand, when we see the performance of the civilians on these fronts, we see a
marked difference. Despite the fact that Pakistan People’s Party played havoc
with Pakistan’s economy and corruption went rampant during their five year rule
(2008 – 2013) they made significant gains on the improvement of relations with
Iran, Afghanistan and India. While our foreign policy has predominantly
revolved around the big players like the United States and China for the last
sixty seven years, PPP led Foreign Policy revolved around the region, which
actually should have been our foreign policy since the day we won independence.
Since the
day PML-N has taken over the country, it has also worked on the same lines.
Mian Nawaz Sharif has said it more than once that he has won this mandate
because of his policy of peace with India. He engaged the former President of
Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, in talks as well. Prime Minister has kept the
Foreign Ministry with himself and while that may have been mainly because he
wanted to keep this department away from the influence of the military establishment,
this has turned out pretty well. China has started to play as a counter-weight to
the United States in Pakistan’s foreign policy as it is pouring in money on the
mega projects of the country. This investment is primarily on Energy which is
Pakistan’s biggest problem currently and the assistance that China is giving in
other developmental projects is also massive.
Pak-China Economic
Corridor is yet another achievement and if Pakistan duly utilizes China’s
assistance in the fields of railways, energy and other economic realms, it
will surely be a huge boost for Pakistan’s economy, in long as well as short
term.
Currently,
Pakistan’s economy seems to be going on the right track. With Foreign
Exchange Reserves levitated to over 11.75 billion US Dollars and GDP Growth
recorded at around 5 per cent (more than expected) in the first half of the fiscal
year and the Stock Exchange breaking new records every week, the economy seems
to have gained some relatively stronger grounds.
So all the
key issues, including energy, economy and foreign policy, Pakistan is moving in
exactly the right direction. When we look at Security, we see the first National
Security Policy of the country being formulated. The drone attacks which
has held Pakistan’s politics hostage for the last several years, were finally brought
to a halt. The best part was that instead of using stupid tactics like those
used previously by the Kiyani administration of blocking the NATO supplies, the
civilian government used diplomatic channels. A resolution was passed
unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly against the drone attacks
after tireless efforts of the Prime Minister and his team and Obama
administration was made to review its drone policy. Although the US has not
officially terminated the use of drone strikes, there have been no drone
attacks since December last year.
Now when we
look at the security policy of the past regimes, especially the martial law
regimes, we see a clear difference. Pervaiz Musharraf surrendered Pakistani
air-bases on one phone call from Richard Armitege; he was the first to allow
drone strikes in the country too. Zia-ul-Haque was the master creator of the
Taliban who pose the biggest threat to Pakistan’s internal security today.
Ayyub Khan and Yahya Khan together gave Bengal away while the consequences of
the policies of all these dictators continue to haunt Pakistan even today. On the
other hand, whatever achievements we have made during the last sixty seven
years were made under civilian rulers. While nuclear capability is owed to
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s vision, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto were always keen
to keep Baluchistan in peace and were very much successful in their attempts.
Nawab Akhtar Mengal drove Nawaz Sharif’s car when the Prime Minister visited
Baluchistan in 1998 and Nawab Akbar Bugti and the Bugti tribe always had close
relations with Mian Nawaz Sharif.
The question
that arises here is that what achievements has our military establishment made,
which make our defense analysts question the credentials of the civilian rulers?
It is a fact that whenever Pakistan made any significant gains in foreign
policy or security policy, it was under civilian rulers and even today, when
civilians are exercising their control with efficiency in these departments,
our defense analysts continue to raise the same points.
Times have
changed. Pakistan has come forward and any attempts by the forces of status quo
(read establishment; civil and military) to hold it back will bear no fruit.
Our policies have to be driven by the elected representatives of the country as
stated in the constitution. The recent attack on Hamid Mir and the consequent tussle between Jang Group and the ISI also seems to be a part of the larger picture in which the civilians are asserting themselves upon the stage. No matter what comes out of this fiasco, in the larger perspective, it will drain something out of both and make them feel each other a little more physically. The forces of change are in a clash with the forces of status quo and it will surely prove to be a little step forward in this game for the civilians.
And if all
that I have written so far is irrelevant and all the fuss that we see these
days on television is NOT about all these issues and only about a legal case
that the Special Court is hearing, all we need is to keep calm and allow the law
to take its course. If we do not abide by the law today, the end loser will only
be the state of Pakistan. Our future generations must not feel that the nation
in which they were born was not able to try a military dictator only because he
was a ‘military’ dictator.
