THE curtain has finally fallen and Mir Zafarullah Jamali has now joined the ranks of former prime ministers of whom there happens to be no dearth. The drama of yet another prime minister — graduate or no graduate — having been pushed into oblivion has been played out for the umpteenth time. But, frankly, that is where Jamali had come from — oblivion — in the first place. His ambition was limited to becoming the prime minister once, which he could never even dream of had there been impartial elections, not the ones that were a prelude to ‘genuine’ democracy. He would only have been a minor blip on the political radar screen of this country’s chequered history.
Many a drawing room had seen ferocious discussion on Jamali’s fate in the last few weeks. Political commentators were busy speculating on his possible fate, as if that would be an earth-shaking event. The Press, with nothing else to cheer, what with spreading lawlessness all over the country particularly in Karachi and civil war like situation in Wana where our own people are pitted against the military acting on alien orders, took to this topic endearingly. Military operations in North Waziristan and the adjoining areas are casting their long shadows on domestic political situation. Some people are connecting the recent attack on Karachi Corps Commander with Wana.
Getting to the prime minister, why did he have to be shown the door? Well, because his appointing authority could. Mr Jamali had provided no provocation, at least not known to us. Quite a feat in itself! As a matter of fact, he had done nothing, literally and metaphorically, ever since the present Chief of Army Staff appointed him to the job. He was so non-committal as to elude definition. The prime minister had not taken position on any issue whatsoever and, as a result, it is not possible to define him. He always mumbled statements that conveyed no particular point of view and were an effort on his part at pleasing everyone and an affront to the people whose PM he was supposed to be.
One never quite knew what he stood for, because he did not stand for any thing. His only philosophy was, ... saath mil kar chalen ge. Where, he did not say! Jamali, it appeared, had Junejo as his guiding light, having learnt from his mistakes. Junejo’s mistakes, according to common perception, in the eyes of his appointing authority, Chief of Army Staff General Ziaul Haq, were, among others, the inquiry into the Ojhri camp incident, the signing of the Geneva Accord, and his decision to force brigadiers, like their civilian counterparts, into Suzuki Khybers.
Jamali could virtually commit no wrong a la monarch of the UK. Firstly, he didn’t have the powers, and secondly he was much too cautious to take decisions, which might even remotely appear to upset his appointing authority.
A friend narrated a story of one senior Foreign Service officer having met the prime minister on the latter’s recent visit to the United States. He asked for a decent ambassadorial posting. The prime minister promptly called his foreign secretary and ordered the officer posted accordingly. The foreign secretary listened politely to the prime minister, but subsequently remarked to a friend, “The PM must be joking. He can’t post a second secretary to a Pakistani mission.” That is that.
There is a theory. The powers that be have a limited patience for a civilian prime minister or civilian institutions. It extends from eighteen to thirty months, and has nothing to do with the quality of the prime minister. The prime minister they choose has to be a toady, but even then they get tired of him no sooner than they have appointed him. If there is one who represents the people, they will be scheming against him or her from day one.
A prime minister once appointed under whatever circumstances and with whatever limited powers, should be able to create his own space and stop looking over his shoulder. He should realize that the law of politics in Pakistan dictates that he would be tolerated for not more than 18 months, which is much too brief a period to make a difference. But that is long enough a time to make some mark on his administration. Irrespective of what his appointing authority thinks, he should act boldly in the best interest of the people. But that is not the stuff that Jamali was made of. That’s why Junejo is still remembered as one of the best of the recent crop of prime ministers.
According to Steve Coll, in Ghost Wars, Pakistani Intelligence reached out to Osama Bin Laden for money to bribe certain legislators to throw Benazir Bhutto out of office. According to Bhutto, ISI Officers telephoned Bin Laden in Saudi Arabia and asked him to fly to Pakistan to help organize a No Confidence Vote in parliament against Bhutto’s government. Pakistani intelligence viewed both Najibullah and Bhutto the twin enemies of Islam. If Bhutto fell in Islamabad and Najibullah in Kabul, the Islamists would have pulled of a double coup in the form of Gulbuddin Hikmatyar. The military has hard time understanding all the fuss about democracy. There is a chief who thinks, decides and orders on behalf of 149 million people of Pakistan, and every one else has to blindly follow. So where is the problem? They like it neat and clean. This debate, delay and discussion, particularly by institutions like the National Assembly, the Senate, or the Judiciary is considered totally unnecessary. And, above all, the hullabaloo with regard to the Constitution is anathema to them and presents an irritating and clearly a formidable impediment to the ‘clear-cut solutions’ the military has always in store for us.
The prime minister’s appointing authority appoints ambassadors, military commanders and also takes all important decisions. This time they took extra care to avoid possible pitfalls. All appointments were to stay with the COAS. He even presided over non-events where the PM had to be present willy nilly as a matter of form and duty. One has the impression that the prime minister did not appoint even the federal secretaries without clearance from his appointing authority.
The question is, what qualifications should a prime minister possess to be able to pass muster of the powers that be. They are leery of making a wrong choice as they have clearly learnt their lesson from the Junejo episode. That was the first experiment of the kind. His appointing authority had made the mistake of selecting a reasonably clean person and allowed him to appoint officers up to the rank of Vice Chief of Army Staff. Junejo appointed Aslam Beg instead of someone the army chief preferred.
This time, they wanted a totally obedient and compliant premier incapable of growing into the job. They were also looking for someone with a less-than-clean past, incompetent and, therefore, perpetually beholden for his job to his handlers. They took extra care this time to find a person who was vulnerable to blackmail. Jamali fitted the bill. He had at least one NAB case pending against him when he was chosen for the job. All his co-accused in the case were convicted, one of them had even died while in jail. The high court concerned had to come to his rescue.
To the credit of Jamali, it has to be said that he kept his part of the bargain. He did not upset the apple cart. He strictly adhered to the mandate given to him, i.e. to be the convenient punching bag and do nothing except perhaps asking some provincial government to post one DSP here or there.
But people at large refused to blame him for the ills plaguing our society because they knew that he was not the one in authority and was, therefore, totally blameless. Jamali completed some 17 months into the job, and by then he had already outlived his welcome. People knew that things were drifting downwards and apart, and they also knew who was responsible.
But the powers that be would like to deflect the criticism from them to him. Jamali belongs to an educated Baloch tribe of Balochistan. In the tribal hierarchy, his is a minor tribe. Its strength lies in the education that other tribes have generally neglected to acquire. He always had hard time winning his National Assembly seat.
In 1985, when he was a sitting federal minister with Gen Zia, deputy commissioner concerned had to be transferred in the middle of the night to make it possible for him to file the sole nomination paper. When his opponent somehow succeeded in filing his nomination paper, he was bribed out with a Grade-17 job offer as assistant commissioner. He is still serving after a brief stint in jail. Subsequent successful elections of the National Assembly have not been without controversy.
The prime minister in Pakistan faces grave risks, as he is not given any show-cause notice unlike the civil servants who serve during his pleasure. He is more like an officer on probation that needs no notice. When Ms Bhutto was removed in 1990, she was asked to vacate the Sindh House at a minute’s notice. She was not allowed enough time even to feed her baby, as her household effects had already been loaded in trucks without her permission.
One of her former joint secretaries in the PM Secretariat was busy preparing a note for her visit to Scandinavian countries in a couple of days when he got a call from some Karachi businessman telling him that he had information that the party was over. This was in the morning of August 6, 1990. The official denied the rumour, but for his reassurance he went and checked, and found the PM chairing the meeting of the Economic Committee of the Cabinet. He felt comforted. Not much later, his PA came running to him to say that military trucks had entered the premises of the PM Secretariat. Now what was the military doing when a civilian setup was in place? Obviously they were part of palace intrigues.
No government in Pakistan has ever changed without covert or overt military involvement. When Justice Sajjad Shah suspended the constitutional provision arming the president with powers to dismiss the prime minister, Nawaz Sharif would have become history had Gen Karamat gone along. The intrigue failed because the military conformed to its oath of loyalty to the Constitution. But that is rare, indeed. The other time was soon after Zia crashed and Gen Beg went ahead with the scheduled elections.
The big question is, what happens next. Only the Chief of Army Staff knows. However, if history is anything to go by, it appears that a bigger countdown may have already started. After all, Gen Zia, Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Farooq Leghari did not survive long after sacking their prime ministers. Institutional interests come first. When Gen Yahya Khan, who shamelessly wanted to hang on even after the most ignominious surrender by the military in East Pakistan, his own generals, had shown him the door.
Times are difficult. But, then, they have been difficult right from the day we won our independence both from the British and the Indian majority. We have never emerged victorious from a series of crises. There have been fearful episodes in human history when prudence and discretion become mere euphemisms for pusillanimity, and when caution is no more than cowardice. There are times in the life of a people or a nation when the political climate demands that we — even the most sophisticated of us — take sides. Such times are upon us, and this time, unlike the struggle for Independence, we won’t have the luxury of fighting an external enemy. We’ll be fighting ourselves. May Allah have mercy on us? Amen.
To quote Y.B.Yeats: Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
THE curtain has finally fallen and Mir Zafarullah Jamali has now joined the ranks of former prime ministers of whom there happens to be no dearth. The drama of yet another prime minister — graduate or no graduate — having been pushed into oblivion has been played out for the umpteenth time. But, frankly, that is where Jamali had come from — oblivion — in the first place. His ambition was limited to becoming the prime minister once, which he could never even dream of had there been impartial elections, not the ones that were a prelude to ‘genuine’ democracy. He would only have been a minor blip on the political radar screen of this country’s chequered history.
