KARACHI: “Businessmen operate more efficiently under a democratic order,” Mr Ashraf W. Tabani, a senior businessman from Karachi, shared his ideas with this correspondent about 17 years ago in 1990. Mr Tabani was associated with a military government in Sindh as finance minister and then as Sindh governor during the Eighties. Benazir Bhutto’s first government was dismissed unceremoniously in August 1990 following an unending series of protest strikes by the businessmen of Pakistan against enforcement of Sales Tax Act 1990 and growing lawlessness in the province. Mr Tabani was asked why the businessmen were uncomfortable in an elected and constitutional government and why they prefer to associate themselves with authoritarian caretakers and military governments. Like Mr Tabani, all businessmen pay lip service to democracy, rule of law and constitutional authority. They try to make others believe that a democratic government provides the best environment for a private enterprise to grow.

“There are less controls and more freedom to grow and operate,” Farooq Sumar, a former chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), remarked in a telephone conversation recently.

Farooq Sumar led a procession of about 100 businessmen from the Karachi Press Club to the Sindh Chief Minister’s House in 1990 against lawlessness and abduction of businessmen. His father the late Abdul Karim Sumar was arrested with three other businessmen in 1958 after Ayub Khan took over. Businessmen were asked to declare their concealed assets. About one billion rupees assets were said to have been declared in 1958. The four businessmen were accused of not declaring all assets and were arrested but subsequently released as according to Mr Sumar “charges against them were found baseless”.

Abdul Karim Sumar was later elected on a ruling Muslim League ticket of the National Assembly from Karachi and remained a staunch supporter of Ayub Khan till his death. He was appointed chairman of the National Press Trust (NPT) that brought out government- controlled newspapers. In all military governments, the businessmen were never shy of accepting positions of authority in public sector organisations.

Businessmen always sought protection under a military rule is a fact that is well substantiated and documented in Pakistan’s 60-year brief history. During these 60 years the military ruled directly for 32 years and in the remaining 28 years there was either quasi-military rule or a weak civilian government being run indirectly by the services. Not only businessmen are most comfortable under a military or a military-led government rule, they are always willing to play the role of a demolition squad to pull down a perfectly legitimate, elected and constitutional government. Not once, but on many occasions, the bazaar force, retailers and wholesalers and transporters organised strikes after strikes and created shortages of essential items to destabilise an elected government.

Mullahs reinforce this military merchant nexus to give a religious populist touch to the campaign of overthrowing an elected government. In Pakistan, the workers have not organised as many strikes and shutdowns as the factory owners and businessmen.

Benazir government was dismissed in August 1990 after businessmen observed an unending series of strikes against the Sales Tax Act 1990. The Sales Tax Act 1990 was framed and enforced in accordance with a Structural Adjustment Programme of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with which late Dr Mahbubul Haq had signed an agreement in 1988 as Ziaul Haq’s minister.

The main purpose of this act was documentation of national economy. Dr Haq was darling of the business community and joined the cabinet after Ziaul Haq had dismissed Prime Minister Junejo.

Ziaul Haq’s caretaker government was expected to organise elections but the military dictator perished in the dust of Bhawalpur in August 1988 when his plane crashed. At one of the parties held at the residence of a local business leaders in Karachi, Dr Haq assured them that ``our government is going nowhere after the elections.”

“We will be here to stay with you and serve you as elected government after 1988,” the late Doctor had informed his businessmen admirers who received the announcement with thunderous applause.

“It is not only in Pakistan, but businessmen in all the developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America played a key role in toppling of elected governments and induction of military governments’’, a senior business leader of Karachi said. This gentleman represented many trade bodies and was a close watcher of many ups and downs in the country.

He has many interesting stories to tell in relax moments. His interpretation is that after the end of Second World War, the Americans were all out to confront communists. The popular and elected governments in all these countries, according to their perception were weak and hence incapable of resisting communist onslaught. The prescription was to pull down the elected governments and bring into power the American trained military officers and civil servants.

It was in 1953, after assassination of first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951 that first serious attempt to destabilise Khawaja Nazimuddin’s government was made by a nexus of Mullah, Military and Merchants. It was anti Ahamadiya campaign in Lahore where the Punjab Government led by Mian Mumtaz Khan Daultana provided financial assistance to four Lahore newspapers from adult literacy fund to fuel the sectarian campaign.

There were strikes by the shopkeepers and transporters and wheat flour prices went up and finally disappeared from the market. The first Martial Law in Pakistan was imposed in Lahore. Daultana was removed by the central government. But Nazimuddin was also dismissed by Governor General Ghulam Mohammad.

“It was first transfer of power from elected civilians to bureaucrats in which the businessmen played key role’’, the senior business leader said.

Businessmen had the first experience of working directly with the military in 1954 when four new ministers were inducted in Mohammad Ali Bogra’s cabinet in 1954. Abul Hasan Ispahani, a jute and tea trader from the then East Pakistan, was one of these four ministers. The three others were General Ayub Khan, General Iskander Mirza and Gulam Ali Talpur.

The real honeymoon for businessmen was during Ayub Khan’s regime when 22 families flourished and thrived and controlled among themselves 70 per cent of banking assets, 80 per cent of insurance and about 75 per cent industrial assets. There was a bonus voucher scheme that gave multiple exchange value to the dollar. Resistance against Ayub Khan at the end of a decade-long rule in 1968 was a logical backlash.

In the 1970 elections, businessmen mobilised huge funds for a convention of the Muslim League, Jamaat-i-Islami and other rightist parties against the Pakistan People’s Party, Awami League and National Awami Party. The PPP, AL and NAP and even the Council Muslim League contested on a radical programme and won the elections.

The businessmen financed parties were subjected to a humiliating defeat. After assuming the government in December 1971, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto went ahead with his party manifesto and nationalised key industries, shipping and insurance companies, and banks. Since businessmen had become investment shy, the government took up this responsibility and made huge investments in steel mills, Heavy Mechanical Complex, Heavy Forge and Foundry, Heavy Electrical Complex, Port Qasim and several other projects.

The Mullah, military and merchant nexus organised itself in the form of the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) in 1977 that charged the atmosphere with religious slogans and paralysed the state with daily strikes by the retailers and transporters.

For their role in demolition of an elected PPP government in 1977, Gen Ziaul Haq appointed Sheikh Ishrat Ali, a small trader from Rawalpindi who was at the time President of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, as his advisor in the cabinet. Nawaz Sharif was picked up for a bigger role. His family was given back the nationalised Ittefaq Foundry without being asked for a bid. The legal cover was provided much later.

The process of deregulation, decontrol, disinvestment and privatisation was initiated under Gen Ziaul Haq with Ghulam Ishaq Khan as Finance Minister. Bulk of more than Rs 87 billion default and written off loans made public by Caretaker Prime Minister Moeen Qureshi were given by the banks during the Eighties when Gen Ziaul Haq was the head of the government and Ghulam Ishaq Khan was finance minister.

From 1988 to 1999 there was conflict between the PPP (having a popular base) and the Nawaz Sharif-led PML that enjoyed the support of businessmen and the establishment. “The end for businessman Nawaz Sharif’s government in October 1999 came because the revenue of the state was falling sharply,” the senior business leader explained, who pointed out that the establishment’s expenditure budget was showing accelerated growth. The state’s revenue was not sustaining the establishment’s rising budget and a change and taking over direct control had become imminent in October 1999.

“Businessmen showed initial resistance when the government’s attempt to register shopkeepers with the sales tax directorate was effectively opposed,” the business leader said. “The tax system has crippled the business. Events have brought Mullahs in confrontation with the military and therefore the question now is: Is the Mullah, military and merchant nexus in Pakistan falling apart?

“We never support the military or an elected political government,” Faruq Sumar said, who added businessmen want an environment in which they can work freely and earn legitimate profits. In private conversation, many business leaders say that they support political parties’ programmes for improving prosperity and purchasing power of the people.”

“We have a vested interest in prosperity of the urban and rural population,” leader of the Karachi Chamber said, and added that improvement in prosperity means expansion of the domestic market that will add to our power.

He said: “The government should cut down heavily on the taxation rates and restructure the entire system. For this, the entire expenditure budget needs to be given a hard look. More resources should be given to education, healthcare, supply of potable drinking water, construction of houses, road networks and services that should benefit the public at large.”