Lesson from Musharraf coup

The Constitution of Pakistan is not just a ‘piece of paper’. It’s a document and a guide to rule the country in accordance with democratic values. Whether our rulers followed it accordingly or not, is a different debate. Military dictators treated it as a piece of paper and tore it apart whenever it became a hurdle for their misrule.

The 1973 Constitution has been torn into pieces more than once despite specific provisions for those who abrogate it, first on July 5, 1977, and again on October 12, 1999. Thus, high treason was committed under Article 6 of the Constitution, but they knew that the civilians would never be powerful enough to enforce it.

There are lessons to learn for both civil and military leadership, but are we ready to learn? The military doctrine for democracy has improved and civilians have also learnt some lessons due to which we have witnessed two uninterrupted elections and are getting ready for the third, if all goes well, in 2018.

October has its own significance in Pakistan. On Oct 8, 1958, first martial law was imposed and another military rule on Oct 12, 1999. In between, we saw Gen Yahya Khan's brief military rule and one civilian rule followed by another long martial law and then four unstable civilian governments.

It is October again and there is also a political crisis creeping up with Imran Khan's threat to siege Islamabad from Oct 30. There are some speculative stories in circulation regarding the discomfort between civil and military leaders, but no signal of extraordinary developments yet.

Some 17 years back, Prime Minister Sharif and the then army chief, Gen Pervez Musharraf, were not even on talking terms. In Oct 2016, Sharif is again the prime minister and the army chief is Gen Raheel. The two have cordial relationship despite difference of opinion on certain matters which has nothing to do with the chief's retirement or extension.

Gen Raheel has already created a history by announcing his retirement nine months back and would be remembered as one of the most popular army chief.

Situation is much better today and so are the civil-military relations as compared to 1999. One man is common in both the crisis, PM Sharif. Therefore, it is also a test for Sharif's political sagacity as sources said “army decided to remain neutral” and keep itself away from political developments.

Imran, who is challenging Sharif's rule, was a junior political leader in 1999 and supported Musharraf on the pretext that he would hold both Sharif and Benazir accountable. In 2016, his main opponent is Sharif again and so is the PPP, but he has much more public support than 17 years back.

The question is as how history would remember Gen Musharraf and his nine years in power. He has certainly usurped power and thus would be called a military dictator and usurper.

When he staged a coup he knew he had no legal and constitutional authority to rule. Thus, no national anthem was played before his first speech as it was purely an address as army chief and not as chief martial law administrator. His team of generals had grabbed power from an elected prime minister at gunpoint.

So on the night of Oct 12, veteran lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada, the man who had done ‘PhD’ in making illegal or unconstitutional actions legal, was approached by Musharraf who sought his advice. Pirzada was quoted as saying, "I did not know the man when I got his first call. I am Gen Pervez Musharraf calling. Can we meet tomorrow?"

He went on to say, “My first advice to him was not to impose martial law as the world would not accept it. I also told him that he could become the president at the moment and asked him to use the title of chief executive."

Gen Musharraf's personality and rule was well defined once to me by his old friend and neighbour in Karachi, Lt-Gen (r) Moinuddin Haider. "I had long association with him. When he took over power, he used to listen to his close friends’ advice, both civilian and military and took decision, accordingly. Then he started taking decisions on his own, but still listened to us. In his last few years, he had even stopped taking advices and went on his own,” he said.

Had he listened to some of these advices, he would have saved himself from lawyers’ movement, Lal Masjid episode, Nov 3 emergency and dealing with Benazir Bhutto. Had he listened to them, he would have stepped down as army chief and honoured his commitment with MMA in 2004.

Had he listened to his friends, he would not have gone for referendum in 2001 and instead after holding general elections as a retired army chief. Had he considered the public appeal of 10 of his closest friends – including Javed Jabbar, Lt-Gen Tanvir Naqvi and Lt-Gen Moinuddin Haider – he would have been remembered in a different way. The appeal was made through a letter published in all the leading newspapers.

But he opted to act as military dictator but came up with two major reforms due to his urban background – one in local governments and second in police through Police Order, 2002. He also opened corporate media culture in the country after learning from the experience of media war that India fought during Kargil. But in 2007 emergency, he banned all the news channels, with GEO Network being the worst affected.

Like any other ambitious general, Musharraf in a bid to prolong his rule attacked judiciary and political parties. He kept both Benazir and Sharif out of electoral process. He created split in PPP and PML-N, struck a deal with MQM and promoted Imran who initially thought he would accept his PTI as a third alternate. But Musharraf wanted to weaken Sharif and Benazir, so he created PML-Q led by Chaudhry Shujaat and PPP (Patriot) after late Makhdoom Amin Fahim refused to become the PM.

From a hero of jihadis till Kargil, he became their villain after 9/11, when he joined hand with the US-led international coalition in the war against terror and banned all sectarian and jihadi outfits.

He tried to win over liberal and secular circles but no liberal or secular party supported him. On the contrary, MMA – an alliance of religious parties – contributed to prolonging his rule.

He suppressed judiciary and used all kind of muscle tactics against judges, who refused to take oath under PCO (Provisional Constitution Order) before introducing the PCO. Once, his men did not allow a sitting Chief Justice of Pakistan even to come out from his house.

On the other hand, politicians learned their lesson when both Benazir and Sharif signed the historic Charter of Democracy (CoD) in 2006. But they paid the price when they tried to deviate from their own commitments made in CoD.

Benazir’s assassination also saw the departure of Gen Musharraf and his controversial era of nine years when he was replaced as army chief by Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. While Musharraf quit as army chief, he wanted to continue as the president, but was surprised when Kayani refuse to involve army in politics and announced that it would remain neutral during elections.

This led to Musharraf's fall as a president too. He was replaced by the spouse of Benazir, Asif Ali Zardari who kept his commitment of giving safe exit and not to make him accountable for his nine-year rule or even in Benazir murder case.

In return, the PPP created history to become the first party to complete its full term, though constitutionally even its firstgovernment of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto also got full term as he himself had held early elections, a year earlier in 1977.

When Sharif became the PM for the record third time after PML-N won elections in 2013 and the country witnessed a smooth transfer of power from one civilian government to another, his government took the risk of putting Musharraf on trial under Article 6 for high treason.

But his arrest and trial became the centre of confrontation between civil and military relation. Earlier, Musharraf had put his institution (army) in a difficult position when he against the military advice returned in 2013 to take part in elections.

Ultimately, the Shari government succumbed to pressure, removed Musharraf's name from ECL and paved way for his second safe exit in seven years. Thus, neither Zardari nor Sharif became powerful enough to put an ex-chief even on trial.

How one could remember October 12? Was it a martial law, coup or a coup-plus like 2007 emergency plus? It would be remembered as an era of dictator who treated the Constitution as a piece of paper.

It is now a responsibility of the politicians to protect and save the Parliament and its supremacy and it is a prime responsibility of the elected government led by PM Sharif to respect the Parliament and get himself and his family cleared from charges of corruption.

No one would support extra Constitutional action, but at the same time, the government should also emerge as clean. If one opposes military dictators from treating the Constitution as piece of paper, we also want the elected PM not to take refuge in the very Constitution and Parliament.

The writer is a senior columnist and analyst of GEO, The News and Jang