The one-year itch

Published July 26, 2014
irfan.husain@gmail.com
irfan.husain@gmail.com

HERE’S an odd thing: while we Pakistanis unanimously profess our support for democracy, we despise politicians and admire generals.

This ambivalence manifests itself in regular long marches, media diatribes and drawing-room rants against elected governments. And yet as soon as a military dictator takes over, basing his coup on this public outcry, we turn on him.

However, the shelf life of military governments is demonstrably longer than it is for elected politicians. True, the last PPP government managed to complete its term, but only by allowing itself to be used as a punching bag by the judiciary, the media, the military, the opposition and every passing ragamuffin.

Now, barely a year after Nawaz Sharif was sworn in, we are hearing loud demands for his departure. Talk of a military intervention and mid-term elections swirls around in TV studios and the drawing rooms of supposedly well-informed people.


Nawaz Sharif has not done such a bad job.


Frankly, I am no fan of the prime minister’s, never having voted for him, and having frequently criticised him in my columns. But the point here is that millions did

vote him into office and continue to support him. And to his credit, Nawaz Sharif did nothing to hasten Zardari’s departure when he could have destabilised the system as he did in the PPP’s previous two stints in power.

Pakistan’s political history is littered with power-hungry politicians who have used the army — and in turn have been used by ambitious generals — to either enter the corridors of power, or pick up the crumbs from a dictator’s table. Civil servants and journalists have taken the same short cut to grab a piece of the cake.

Given this sorry track record, it was a relief to see a civilian government complete its term last year. But is seems Imran Khan, Tahirul Qadri, the Chaudhry clan and other politicians are exhibiting symptoms of the one-year itch. This is apparently the amount of time it takes for these people to feel it’s their turn now.

Imran Khan is justified in seeking a recount of votes in controversial constituencies. I support him when he demands a complete reform of the electoral system: we cannot afford to have every election tainted by accusations of rigging. But I part company with him when he appears to wish to destabilise the government with his planned march on Aug 14.

As my old friend Abbas Nasir pointed out here in a recent column, Imran Khan could more profitably use his time and energy in improving the lives of the people of KP, the province his party rules. But clearly, his eyes are on the prime minister’s office, and he doesn’t want to wait till 2018 to occupy it.

Some offshoots of the Muslim League have joined him; other parties are waiting to see which way the wind is blowing. Zardari recently weighed in with the solemn pronouncement that the people elected a prime minister, not an emperor.

The army, while maintaining a discreet silence, has made its unhappiness over the Musharraf treason trial clear as Nawaz Sharif has, apparently, broken his word over the ex-dictator’s release. Even though it opposed Musharraf’s return, the military establishment has always protected its own.

Yet Nawaz Sharif has not done such a bad job, especially compared to his immediate predecessors. True, this is not a very high bar, but the stock market has crossed the 30,000 mark; the rupee has gained against the dollar; and after much delay, a military operation has been launched in North Waziristan. So not such a terrible record that the government needs to be changed four years before its tenure is up.

The scale of the problems is such that they can hardly be solved in a matter of months. The power crisis, for instance, cannot be sorted out overnight. Nor can employment be provided to the millions of young people joining the job market every year. The genie of jihadi terrorism is something that will take years to put back into the bottle.

I could go on, but you get the picture. To imagine that Imran Khan — or anybody else — could deliver immediate improvement in any of these areas would be to inhabit the PTI bubble, cocooned from reality.

The reality is that by nature, we Pakistanis are impatient: witness the road rage that quickly builds up at traffic jams. We hate queuing patiently, and waiting for our turn. Instead, we try and jump the line and get to the counter first. This is reflected in the impatience exhibited by politicians as they clamour for regime change as soon as a rival is sworn in.

The problem with this immature approach is that the government has to spend most of its energy warding off these attacks instead of focusing on the problems we face. So even if we don’t like him, why not let Nawaz Sharif get on with what he was elected to do and run the country?

irfan.husain@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2014

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