The year 2004 will be remembered in Pakistan as one of events, ironies and contradictions. The country saw three prime ministers in this one year, two orderly transfers of power and the consolidation of the office of the president. This was in addition to the formalization of the role of the military in affairs of state through the creation of the National Security Council.
It was also the year which saw the swearing-in of the largest ever cabinet in the history of the country by a prime minister brought in with an agenda to provide good governance. This irony can be coupled with the fact that this was also the year when President Musharraf had second thoughts about taking off his COAS uniform. This development came about through the passage of a bill, appropriately worded the "President to hold another office bill 2004".
Continuing rise in terrorist activity and a decline in the overall law and order situation in the country, however, overtook political drama for most of the year. Over 70 militants allegedly belonging to Al Qaeda and its linked organizations were either killed or apprehended in the year while over 100 innocent people died in sectarian killings all over the country. The rise in crime was unprecedented particularly in the country's largest city, Karachi, where a large chunk of the police force is now involved in protecting VIPs.
The economy remained in good shape but poverty continued to grow despite official claims to the contrary. Pakistan ranked lowest in the social development index amongst South Asian countries. Unemployment remained at record levels and the only way the government addressed the issue was to open up over 100,000 government jobs at a time when the public sector is being "right-sized" and efforts are underway to reduce non-development expenditure.
The year started on an optimistic note when President Musharraf secured a vote of confidence in parliament following the December 2003 agreement with the MMA. Under this agreement, the president sought a vote of confidence from parliament despite being elected earlier under a nationwide referendum, which was widely seen as flawed. The result gave the president a simple majority of 658 votes, which was slightly more than 56 per cent of the 1,170-strong electoral college of the 342-seat National Assembly, the 100-seat Senate and 728 members of the four provincial assemblies. Aside from the ruling party and its coalition members, most other parties boycotted the proceedings while the MMA simply abstained from voting.
Soon after, however, started a campaign under which politicians and government sympathizers launched appeals to General Musharraf to reverse his decision to do away with his uniform. The orchestrated campaign was led by defectors from the PPP who had joined hands with the government and many had landed with cushy ministries.
In January, however, another bombshell exploded when international investigators allegedly unearthed a nuclear black-market operation that was traced back to the father of Pakistan's nuclear programme, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan. By January 31, this nationally known figure was put under house arrest and in February came on national television to emotionally announce to a startled audience that he wanted to offer an unqualified apology. And with this apology, the then very visible Dr Qadeer withdrew from the public eye and went into seclusion.
Another big scare in January was the outbreak of a strain of avian influenza in Karachi and its outskirts. Thousands of birds, mostly chickens, died of the illness and then a government drive resulted in the culling of over 3.5 million chickens from poultry farms across the city. As a consequence, poultry prices plummeted and diners struck off chicken from their menus. Many poultry farmers went out of business and farms shut down before the crisis finally abated.
By February - on the back of the goodwill created by the visit of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Pakistan for the Saarc summit of 2003 - following a meeting between the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India, an announcement was made that agreement had been reached to hold secretary level later in the year. Thus started a wave of improvement in relations between the two countries. But in retrospect, most of this seemed only talk in 2004. In fact, there was some frustration in Islamabad and Delhi by October at the pace at which the mandarins in both countries were carrying on with meetings with little to show in terms of substance.
The substance, if it can be called that, came in March when the Indian cricket team, overriding concerns for their safety and with the blessings of their prime minister, made a historic trip to Pakistan. Over 8,000 visas were issued for accompanying Indian fans which included high flying actors and actresses besides politicians like Priyanka Gandhi and her brother Rahul.
The Pakistan-India cricket series did much to soothe relations and despite the fact that India won the series convincingly, the Pakistanis put up a good fight and displayed exemplary behaviour both in and outside the stadiums. Many Indians went back with stories of hospitality and affection shown to them in Pakistan. A special visitor was Dina Jinnah Wadia, Jinnah's daughter, who visited Pakistan for the first time after her father's funeral in September 1948. Mrs Wadia didn't say much but did visit her father's grave in Karachi along with her son and grandsons.
Almost at this time trouble started to heat up in Wana, a tiny town in South Waziristan. Fighting between government troops and bands of armed men believed to be supporters of Al Qaeda started to intensify. But the government put a media blackout on the area denying journalists the access they need to report independently on the situation. The idea was simple enough: Osama bin Laden and other top Al Qaeda men were believed to be hiding in this area and the army tried to cordon it off to smoke them out. This did not happen and what eventually happened was that the locals and the army got involved in a messy war of attrition.
The stories of excesses by both sides came out a little later. But the attacks continued and in April the government arrived at the Shakai agreement with the wanted men which was described as "historic". Militant leaders Nek Muhammad and Maulvi Noor Abbas were seen presenting various gifts to army commanders. The spin the government gave was that these leaders were surrendering though it was nothing of the sort. Proof of this came soon in the form of resumption of fighting soon after, while the government attempted to pit one tribe against another in a bid to gain an upper hand. In June, Nek Muhammad was killed by a guided missile and for a while became a hero among the locals there. The army continues to fight this war, which has claimed hundreds of lives and shows no sign of abating. In December, the army commander of the area announced that the army was pulling back from the area but this statement was quickly contradicted by the government.
In April, the uniform controversy resurfaced and this time round the two contenders for the top army job were named as Lt. Gen. Ahsan Salim Hyat and Lt. Tariq Waseem Ghazi if General Musharraf were to step down as army chief. April 19 will be remembered as a black day for democracy as the National Security Council came into being in what the opposition described as a state of "permanent martial law". On another front, the government was in for a pleasant surprise when licences for mobile phones were sold for $582 million - an amount in Pakistan unheard of till then, although one of the bidders later defaulted on its payments.By the end of the first quarter of 2004, it was disclosed that wheat prices had risen in five months from Rs 320 for a 40kg bag to Rs480 for a 40kg bag. Similarly, steel prices had risen 200 per cent from Rs 20,000 to Rs60,000 per ton. Similar rises were also seen in other products like building items, essential commodities and even in heavily protected industries like automobiles.
By April, on the political front, another drama was in the offing. The Supreme Court had allowed former Punjab chief minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, the right to return. The next month Mian Shahbaz tried to return to Pakistan in violation of an agreement that the government insists took place between it and the Sharif family of a 10-year exile period. Shahbaz Sharif was bundled off to Saudi Arabia in a government plane soon after landing in Lahore. By December 2004, the Sharifs had completed four years in exile.
May saw much tragedy and mayhem. Earlier in March, 33 people had died as a result of a grenade thrown at a Shia procession in Quetta. Onlookers say that a number of casualties actually took place when the 5,000-strong armed forces contingent started firing into the crowd. Much more of this violence was seen in May, which some magazines went on to refer to as "Bloody May". On May 7, 15 people died at the Hyderi Masjid in Sindh Madressatul Islam in Karachi followed by the deaths of 33 people in a bomb blast at another Karachi imambargah situated on one of the city's busiest roads. Mufti Niazmuddin Shamzai, a Deobandi cleric, was killed in May which prompted further disturbances in the city. There were attacks also on a mosque in Sialkot and 41 died in Multan in November after a bomb was tossed at a gathering to mark the death anniversary of Maulana Azam Tariq .
However, what shook the government were not the random killings of Sunnis and Shias but the brazen daytime attack on Karachi Corps Commander Lt Gen Ahsan Salim Hyat on a busy Karachi street on June 10, the same day that the new Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim was taking his oath of office. The ensuing investigations into the attack led to the discovery of a new militant force, the Jundullah, and this led to some startling arrests including that of two doctors, Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed, in a manner so bizarre that leaves many guessing as to the motive behind the detention.
Terrorism also reared its ugly head elsewhere. Mr Shaukat Aziz was targeted while he campaigned in Fatehjang, Attock. The attack left his driver dead. Bombs exploded on Fatima Jinnah Road in Karachi next to the house of the US consul-general in May in which one innocent life was lost. Three Chinese engineers were killed in an attack in Gwadar in May while yet another Chinese engineer died in a botched-up rescue attempt after the kidnap of two Chinese engineers in October. Abroad, two Pakistanis were victims of terrorism after an Iraqi terror group beheaded them to protest against a supposed plan to send Pakistani troops under a peace-keeping mandate to Iraq. The plan never materialized. But 29-year-old Sajid Naeem and 49-year-old Raja Anwar Khan were killed by their captors.
Politics continued its bizarre journey in Pakistan. After months of speculation, Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali handed in his resignation at a PML party meeting in Islamabad on June 26. To date, the main reasons for this action and decision remain unclear. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was chosen as prime minister in the short-term till finance minister Shaukat Aziz won a National Assembly seat and took over as prime minister. These elections took place on August 18, which were predictably won by Aziz, after which he took over as prime minister.
Political parties continued to be at loggerheads, much no doubt to the government's satisfaction and benefit. At the start of the year it was the ARD against the rest as the MMA entered into an understanding with the government. By the end of the year, the MMA felt betrayed by the president's decision not to take off his uniform and threatened a country-wide series of protests. In November, Asif Ali Zardari was released after eight years in jail.
While there was talk about some political deal which allowed Mr Zardari his freedom, no one was willing to give any details although his brief internment in December did much to quell this impression. It seemed that the government wanted to prove that Mr Zardari had been released under a deal but in reality it was more the work of a chief justice not bowing to political pressure. But by December, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed was talking of potential contact with mainstream political leaders and President Musharraf floated the idea of a national reconciliation government. But Gen. Musharraf denied that early elections would take place. One of the country's political patriarchs, Mian Muhammad Sharif, in the meantime, passed away in Saudi Arabia in October. By-elections in Sindh in May resulted in the death of 12. The death of two PPP stalwarts - Abdullah Murad and Munawwar Suharwardy - shook the party and Ms Bhutto. But Mr Zardari's release has infused some life into the party cadre.
In the same month, President Musharraf took a departure from standard Pakistani policy on Kashmir when he said at an Iftar in October that several other options for the solution of the Kashmir problem could be viewed. He called it "food for thought". India came up with a muted response.
But things at home that needed to be solved remained ignored. The resignation of a member from Sindh to the National Finance Commission once again illustrated the frustration at the manner in which the federal government continues to procrastinate on the matter of dividing the national funds. Similarly, there has been no arrangement in place for equitable distribution of water. The Kalabagh Dam project continues to haunt smaller provinces with the president seemingly intent on commissioning its construction.
The smaller towns continued to be ignored by the centre. Hyderabad witnessed 25 deaths in May after the local water authority pumped contaminated water to homes despite warnings not to do so. Sixty-eight deaths were reported in the year from Mamukanjan in Faisalabad due to contaminated water. But no action was taken against those responsible for either of the two tragic episodes.
Discontent was most visible in Balochistan where a series of attacks on construction projects, government offices and even in the convoy of the provincial CM illustrated that there is growing militancy in that province. Upset at the denial of jobs and government help, especially in some areas which are considered the most backward, some Baloch seem to have taken up arms. The government has still not seriously addressed this issue.
Crimes against women and children continued unabated. The gruesome murder of nine-year-old Hajra and six-year-old Sassui in the Gadap area of Karachi was solved due to the diligence of an SSP. Three kidnapping cases shook Faisalabad while in Lahore, the assault on a seven-year-old girl who was then left for dead by her assailant did not wake the government from its indifference. While Shaista Almani and Balakh Sher were given relief by the Sindh High Court, over eight people have so far died in the feudal violence their marriage left in its wake in their home towns. For its part, the National Assembly and the Senate passed a watered-down honour killing bill.
Overall, the year has been quite eventful but in some ways predictable. With the onset of 2005, it is expected that the political situation will remain unsettled, which would be in direct contrast to the calm in the economy. However, Pakistan's economic miracle has not trickled down to the common citizen with the result that poverty continues to grow. This may be an area of great concern, along with the problem of governance, which leaves many Pakistanis frustrated and angry.
The final month saw passage of a piece of legislation awkwardly titled "President to Hold Another Office Bill 2004" with unusual haste by a supposedly free parliament. The same parliament had earlier given its approval to the creation of the National Security Council. Democracy continued to be undermined as political opposition came from right-wing parties more intent on seeking concessions for themselves rather than the PML-N and the PPP.
The year 2004 will be remembered in Pakistan as one of events, ironies and contradictions. The country saw three prime ministers in this one year, two orderly transfers of power and the consolidation of the office of the president. This was in addition to the formalization of the role of the military in affairs of state through the creation of the National Security Council.
