From Pakistan to Faujistan —Ahmad Faruqui

Musharraf’s personality cult is reminiscent of Ayub Khan’s in his final years. Larger-than-life portraits of him line the streets of Islamabad as he welcomes the Saudi king or the American president. PTV’s Khabarnama could well be re-named as Musharrafnama. Not surprisingly, last October, while talking about the earthquake, an American visitor made an inadvertent reference to Musharrafabad on PTV. Can anyone blame him for the Freudian slip?

For the seventh year in a row, the nation observed Pakistan Day under military rule. Pervez Musharraf showed up at the Minar-e-Pakistan dressed in muftis and spoke at what was in every sense of the term a pre-election political rally. And there’s the rub. While talking of democracy, the army continues to be sovereign.

On March 18, Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Sadaat symbolically handed over the command of the PAF by giving his sword to his successor, marking the completion of his tenure. On the same day, the army chief whose tenure had run out in October 2001, showed no sign of handing over his sword to his successor. While speaking to the troops in Bahawalpur, General Musharraf promised to give them state-of-the-art weaponry so that they would acquire a qualitative edge over the non-existent external enemy.

At the Corps Headquarters, he was greeted by generals who appeared over-burdened with medals and ribbons. The corps commander pinned honorary badges on Musharraf, who had shown exceptional courage in visiting the town that had taken the life of the last army chief-turned-president. To prevent any recurrence, police and security personnel had sealed off the entire city.

This sombre military ceremony was in sharp contrast to a joyous meeting that had taken place in Lahore 66 years ago. The All India Muslim League had passed a resolution calling for the creation of a sovereign Muslim state. Seven years later, Pakistan appeared on the map. Its very name exuded the purity of Iqbal’s ideology. In its birth, there was not a hint that it was destined to become a garrison state.

The beginnings were difficult, since the new state lacked an industrial infrastructure and crucial military supplies. But that did not keep it from going to war with India within two months of independence. The war sapped Pakistan’s financial resources but still did not go well. It was in progress while the Quaid passed away on September 11, 1948. A UN-sponsored ceasefire fell into place three months later.

This unfinished war gave the army a mandate from which it would not retreat, that of wresting Kashmir from India. This goal was conferred on the army by the civilian leadership, since it regarded Kashmir as the unfinished agenda of partition and a symbol of Pakistan’s identity.

The leaders dreamed that the Kashmiris would rise one day against the Indian occupiers, obviating the need for the Pakistan army to take on the much larger Indian army. India at that time was three to four times bigger in size, in addition to being largely militarily self-sufficient. So defence spending was accorded priority over all other heads of spending in Pakistan.

But the task was difficult. In 1951, prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated. After an air crash killed the two senior-most generals in the army, Ayub Khan was appointed as the first Pakistani commander-in-chief. Later, a former bureaucrat who had assumed the post of governor general illegally dismissed the civilian government. This was a coup carried out with the army’s concurrence. Like the tiger in Jim Corbett’s hunting classics that gets his first taste of human flesh and becomes a man-eater for life, the army had gotten its first taste of politics and would not let go.

Ayub Khan was inducted as defence minister while in uniform and given autonomy in determining defence policy. Since so much of Pakistan’s foreign policy was centred on Kashmir, which would only be acquired through military means, the army’s influence spilled over into foreign policy. The timing was auspicious since the Cold War was its peak, with the Soviets having exploded their first H-bomb in 1953. Soon thereafter Pakistan entered into several defence agreements with the US and was able to modernise its military, especially the army and air force — at American expense. Now, the generals thought, they could hold India at bay while fomenting an insurgency in Kashmir.

Even then, the arrival of Faujistan could have been avoided, had the military-bureaucracy complex allowed parliament to function on the adoption of a constitution in 1956.

However, finding its corporate interests threatened by civilian interference, the army seized the reins of power in October 1958. The flag of Faujistan had been hoisted.

After a few good years, Ayub Khan’s rule degenerated into cronyism and racism. The cracks surfaced in the presidential elections of 1964, when widespread voter fraud resulted in the surprising defeat of the Quaid’s sister. Ayub Khan’s failure to acquire Kashmir in the war of September 1965 unleashed forces that he could not rein in. Disaster ensued just as he began to celebrate his Decade of Development.

Promising free and fair elections, General Yahya Khan pushed Ayub Khan aside and became a caretaker president. Elections were held as promised but power was not transferred to the legislature. On March 26, 1971, the army unleashed a crackdown in the eastern province the like of which had not been witnessed in the sub-continent since the days of Nadir Shah. The ensuing civil war resulted in the break-up of the country. Jinnah’s Pakistan passed into history.

As the military commander in the east was surrendering his sword, the mournful words of “Jiyae Pakistan” (Long Live Pakistan) were wafting over the airwaves in the west. These words carried much pathos in them, even more than the words of “Jaag raha hay Pakistan (Pakistan lies awake)” that were being broadcast by Radio Pakistan when a ceasefire was declared at the end of the war of September 1965.

There were a few democratic interludes in the Pakistan that emerged after the December 1971 war but the army continued to reign supreme. Every civilian prime minister lived at the mercy of the army chief, forced to fund an increasingly larger army. Faujistan had now arrived and Pakistan perished.

Under General Musharraf, the army’s national footprint has become even larger than the size of the armed forces would suggest. The Jack Boot has trampled every important civilian institution and appropriated it, guaranteeing life-long employment to army officers. In addition, generals have been granted public land at throwaway prices and benefited from large-scale kickbacks from arms dealers.

Musharraf has now thrown caution to the wind. His personality cult is reminiscent of Ayub Khan’s in his final years. Larger-than-life portraits of him line the streets of Islamabad as he welcomes the Saudi king or the American president. PTV’s Khabarnama could well be re-named as Musharrafnama. Not surprisingly, last October, while talking about the earthquake, an American visitor made an inadvertent reference to Musharrafabad on PTV. Can anyone blame him for the Freudian slip?

Dr Ahmad Faruqui is director of research at the American Institute of International Studies and can be reached at Faruqui@pacbell.net