All political parties unanimously welcome the action
From Shamim Ahmed
Rizvi, Islamabad
Oct 18 - 24, 1999
Army's move to step in and dismiss Nawaz Sharif's government was not
unexpected in view of what was happening in the country during the last few weeks. The
thoroughly unjustified and most stupid action, to say the least, of Nawaz Sharif earlier
during the day only prompted it.
On Tuesday afternoon the Prime Minister ordered premature retirement of
Chief of the Army Staff Gen. Pervez Musharraf and appointed ISI chief Lt. Gen. Ziauddin,
as new commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army. The change came as a shock and surprised
everybody as only two weeks back the dual charge of Gen. Musharraf as Chairman Joint Chief
of Staff Committee was confirmed by the Prime Minister. The orders came at a time when the
General was on his way back home for an official visit of Sri Lanka. The PIA commercial
flight in which he was travelling was not allowed to land in Karachi and was asked to land
anywhere outside Pakistan. The Civil Aviation Authority at Karachi airport did not listen
to the pilots plea that he was running short of fuel. The Army, however, thwarted the move
and the plane finally landed at Karachi. Almost simultaneously the Army units cardoned off
the PM House, Governors and Chief Minister Houses in the Punjab capital taking all of them
under protective custody.
In a brief address to the nation on TV and Radio in the small hours of
Wednesday Gen. Musharraf held the deposed government responsible for destroying the
institutions, bringing the economy to the state of collapse and pursuing self-serving
policies rocking the very foundation of the federation of Pakistan. The armed forces, he
said, faced public glamour to remedy the situation and when he conveyed these concerns to
the Prime Minister, instead of taking any remedial measure, he started a systematic
campaign to politicize and destabilize the army and to create dissension within its ranks
on ethnic and parochial basis. The General did not spell out his future plan in his brief
address.
After marathon meetings spread over 50 hours and detailed discussion on
various options available then their likely repercussions it was announced late on
Thursday night that Chief of the Army Staff has decided to assume power as Chief Executive
of the country. Putting Pakistan under Army by imposing emergency, the Chairman Joint
Chiefs of the Staff Committee and Chief of the Army Staff General Pervez Musharraf assumed
the office of the Chief Executive with sweeping powers, keeping the Constitution in
abeyance and suspending the country's legislature at all level. The state will now be run
under the provincial constitution order (PCO) which inter alia, lays down that the action
taken by the Chief of the Army Staff, the Executive of the country or by any authorized
person / agency cannot be challenged in any court of law.
All opposition parties have unanimously upheld the decision of the Army
Chief about dismissing Nawaz Sharif's government on the grounds that it was the only way
out under the prevailing law and order situation and the economic chaos. That was plainly
visible to the common man, struggling with a fast eroding income. They cite the silence of
the masses and the incredible ease with which the army high command ousted a Prime
Minister who had received the heaviest mandate ever in the history of the country.
The claimants of the heaviest mandate and nuclear laurels have seen the
exit out of power by their own action and policies, paying the ground for the armed forces
to step in to take over the country's control for the fourth time in Pakistan's history.
The chronology of events taking place during the whole more than half of the Nawaz
Government's tenure is typically a sorry lesson bearing tale of how a popularly and
democratically leader can go berserk in pursuit of the training full authoritarian powers
thereby destroying all established democratic institutions by acting on personal whims,
likes and dislikes making the government and the state a family affair. First of all he
used his heavy parliamentary mandate to strip the president of all his powers and cleared
the first main hurdle in his way. His second act was to launch a frontal assault on the
judiciary by manipulating or at least encouraging the attack on the Supreme Court building
by his partymen which ultimately led to the removal of the then Chief Justice thus getting
a free hand Nawaz Sharif went on trampling and rampaging the authority of all other
democratic institutions. In his public pronouncements, he continued to promise people to
eliminate corruption, bring back country's looted wealth, recover loans from the
defaulters, conduct impartial accountability of all, bring justice to people's door step,
strengthening the country's economy by breaking the 'begging bowl' and attaining self
reliance. In actual fact, however, as a result of a partisan and narrow approach,
thoughtless policies, high government spending and mismanagement, the economy reached near
collapse, industrialization came to a grinding halt, export went down, employment soared
to a record high driving the people to unbearable financial crises and forcing many to
commit suicide, corruption and favouritism continued to flourish. Sectarian violence and
terrorism led to law and order situation making the lives of citizens insecure. Repeated
attempts were made to coerce the journalists and press who pinpointed the flaws and
mistakes in governance, vengeance against every dissenting voice became the rule of the
day.
The international community has generally expressed much concern over
the army intervention. Unfortunately our experience with democracy especially in the past
about ten years has been a very sad one the circumstances compelled that a special and
concentrated effort be made to address the outstanding problems facing the country without
which Pakistan cannot move forward. The loopholes and lacunae in the democratic system
leading to its failure in Pakistan must be removed before embarking on democratic rail
again.
