In its present shape, the National Security Council has four men in uniform, when even a single one is often enough for our entire lot of politicians

IT was a nice weekend till the door bell rang. I guessed it right. It was Yasser. Almost all my horrible hunches have an irritating tendency to turn out to be true. Ha! The much-awaited weekend is gone, no more listening to the soft music.

I requested my wife, who was busy helping kids with their homework, to send coffee for us if she did not mind, which she told me on my face there and then, that she did. In Islamabad, with the start of October, one can swallow bitter conversation with a much bitter coffee, unlike in Karachi where people are still sitting with their airconditioners on.

I hate politics, never had an appetite for it, and somehow managed to avoid all political news and the statements of our so- called political leaders, but Yasser was a true ‘concerned’ Pakistani.

He was there sitting with a copy of the day’s newspaper. The moment I entered the room I realized that he is here to steam out all his weekly political analysis. Oh God, help me bear it with a grin, went the silent prayer.

This difference apart, Yasser is a gem of a person, who had studied and worked abroad, but had returned with the burning desire to work for his own people. The poor fellow is being treated by our system the way it deals with all others, and I try to lend a sympathetic ear to Yasser to help him give vent to his frustration.

“So, what’s up,” I inquired after exchanging pleasantries.

“Have you noticed it has been four years since Oct 12, 1999.”

“So?”

“I mean it has been four years since the army takeover.”

“Look at it differently, and it becomes one year since the elections were held, right?”

“You do have a point, frankly, but even after one year democracy is not restored,” he said and started a long lecture about the LFO and the NSC and such other things.

Looking at my facial expressions, Yasser put it rightly to me. “Do you at all know what the LFO is? What the NSC is?”

Faced with a direct query, I had no answer but to say something. “Sorry dear, I really do not fully understand what this LFO is. But, yes, I do know what the NSC is. I am not that dumb, you see. It stands for National Saving Centre from where I purchase certificates, whenever I can, for the difficult days. But, unfortunately, the returns are diminishing day by day on the insistence of IMF and the World Bank. It pains me as I had forgone so many luxuries for the sake of bright future of my kids while saving money to purchase those certificates.”

I could see a shade of frustration on Yasser’s face, but I wasn’t finished yet. I continued with my own frustrations over the fact that while our parliamentarians were being paid out of public money despite not have legislated anything for the common man during the last one year, I — very much a common man — had to continue paying taxes to enable the government to bear such expenses.

I am really annoyed with the increased tax deduction that my salary is subjected to. It has left my household budget in tatters, and I do not find any other income-generating activity despite my wife’s insistence to narrow the gap. I could have continued, but Yasser was getting impatient, so I had to stop.

“By the way, you were going to tell me what the LFO really is,” I said.

“LFO stands for Legal Framework Order and it consists of as many as 29 constitutional amendments. It also provides for the creation of the NSC, which, mind you, stands for the National Security Council, and not the National Saving Centre,” he said with a hint of sarcasm.

“So?”

“It comprises the President, who is chairman of the Council, the Prime Minister, the Senate Chairman, the National Assembly Speaker, the Opposition Leader, the four Chief Ministers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, and the three services chiefs.”

“So? I mean everybody seems to have a representation, so what’s wrong with that?”

By then Yasser was scratching his head, but perhaps had nothing better to do, and continued. “The point is that the Council exercise checks on the elected political government and has the power to dismiss the National Assembly, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister. Try to see the point; without the NSC, the army can’t do any of these things.”

He handed me over the copy of the newspaper he had in his hands and asked me to read the news that he had circled with a red marker. It was about the possibility of the first NSC meeting by the end of October, but there were some doubts as the Leader of the Opposition had not been named yet.

“Why to call an NSC meeting when the issue of the LFO, under which it has been formed, is still unresolved?”

“Maybe they want to remind the Opposition that the NSC possesses the power to sack parliament, signalling them to mend their ways or else ...”

I could see what Yasser was getting at. By his logic, the government wanted to pressurize the Opposition over the LFO deadlock, which needed to be resolved before the next consideration of Pakistan’s membership by the Commonwealth, which is due in December.

But in the absence of a designated leader, the Opposition will not have due representation in case the meeting is convened. Out of the four chief ministers, only the one from the NWFP will represent the Opposition. My mind started working on Yasser’s lines.

“Just imagine, one Opposition representation in the shape of the NWFP versus four men in uniform, the Prime Minister, who calls the uniformed President his boss, the NA Speaker who escaped a no-trust motion not long ago, and the Senate Chairman. In effect, there will be eleven participants in the present scenario — against the required thirteen, as one of them is wearing two hats, and the Opposition leader is missing. Of them, there will be seven civilians and four in uniform, when even a single man in uniform is often enough for our entire lot of politicians,” Yasser added to my meagre political insight.

“But, to me, it is very simple. You need to have four pillars to give stability to any structure, may it be the engineered democracy in Pakistan,” I remarked, and had to literally run behind a literally disgusted Yasser, who had perhaps found something better to do than to spend any more time with a political dimwit.