WITH the election of corps headquarter-approved nazims and naib nazims, the spearmen of the real democracy that General Musharraf had promised to gift the nation are finally in place. They make a princely collection.
Monitored closely by the corps commanders who constitute Gen Musharraf's ruling college of bishops, this electoral exercise has been carried out with all the singlemindedness of a military operation. Its objective has been a disarmingly simple one: the creation of a military-friendly civilian constituency (forget the contradiction in this phrase) for the latest in Pakistan's long line of distinguished saviours.
Given the importance of this objective, minor irritants such as those the tender-hearted would call democratic niceties have not been allowed to stand in the way of its fulfilment. It is a mark of this approach that the list of approved candidates was compiled in close consultation with the Like-minded or Sarkari League headed by Mian Azhar, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Ellahi--the three luminaries who should now be taken as the leading apostles of the real democracy to whose tune the country is all set to march.
Where the corps commanders had no favourites, the wishes of Mian Azhar and the Chaudhries prevailed. But if, as we have seen most spectacularly in Rawalpindi, there was a military favourite, nothing could block his anointing as the certified candidate of the Official League.
It is instructive to dwell a bit on the 'Pindi contender. Before these free and fair elections who could have considered Tariq Kayani as the front runner? The Chaudhries first chose Raja Basharat as their man only to be told (face-to-face) by Commander 10 Corps, Lt-Gen Jamshed Gulzar Kayani, that the national interest was better served by Tariq Kayani (the similarity of surnames being entirely coincidental) as Rawalpindi nazim. Not a man to miss the writing on the wall, Basharat withdrew his candidature, contenting himself with the consolation prize of tehsil nazimship for his younger brother.
Ten Corps is the formation whose responsibilities include the guarding of the Siachen passes. Hawk-eyed vigilance in the north and a keen civic sense in Rawalpindi: this is what is called versatility. No one can accuse the modern Pakistan army of not being protean in its capabilities.
Similarly illuminating has been the performance of the 6th Armoured Division based in Kharian whose commander, Maj-Gen Ghumman, has been closely watching the election scene in Chakwal. By now he should be as familiar with the political personalities of his diocese as with his troops and columns of armour. It is this facet of military training, or call it expertise, which gives the Pakistan army an edge over its Indian rival. The Indian army is narrow in outlook, concerned only with professional militarism whereas the Pakistan army with its multifarious responsibilities has a range truly Napoleonic in its reach and vision.
A clarification, though, is in order. In north Punjab, the heart of the martial belt and the region regarding whose nazim elections I can say something, the corps commanders have intervened only at the macro or strategic level (military officers being fond of these terms), ensuring that the mantle of official candidate fell on the right shoulders. They have been clear on one point: no PPP or Nawaz Sharif supporter should enter the hallowed circle of nazims, the future constituency of Gen Musharraf. Otherwise, to the best of my knowledge, there has been no micro-intervention in the form of majors or colonels pressuring the administration to get 'positive' results. To this extent this election has been free and fair.
But the point to examine is the outcome of this exercise in military planning. No better collection of yes-men could have been gathered for giving a civilian face to the present order or advancing Gen Naqvi's devolution plan--about which we have been told that it is the answer to all the country's problems. Are these men of straw, in awe of their respective corps commanders, the messiahs whose approach the nation has been awaiting?
Indeed, what Gen Musharraf and his knights are asking of the nation is nothing less than a total suspension of disbelief. We are being asked to forget the non-performance of the last year and a half and to believe that a revolution, a quick-fix for all our ills, is at hand. In other words, through Gen Naqvi's attempt at administrative restructuring, we have at last discovered the Holy Grail.
Credulity needs stretching to believe any of this. Consider the talent on offer. Can the army-vetted nazims who will be carrying the burden of Gen Naqvi's district engineering be the harbingers of a social upheaval? We might with equal assurance believe that gilded lilies will sprout from municipal cesspools.
The newly-elected nazims do not come from a crop of fools. Knowing the keen interest taken in their welfare by the corps commanders, they are all too aware of their real status: pawns in a larger power game. From creatures thus elected (or selected) is it at all fair to expect justice, impartiality and similar administrative wonders? Products of an exercise whose central principle has been the lack of even-handedness, are they now expected to discharge their district duties in an even-handed manner?
The Like-minded Leaguers are chips off the Nawaz Sharif block, people who took part in the loot, plunder and maladministration of the decade that Gen Musharraf likes to associate with 'sham' democracy. The same people, having been vetted by their respective corps commanders, are now being expected to play the role of knights in civic armour. We are all entitled to our day-dreams. But this one would leave even confirmed Freudians a bit out of breath.
Instead of administrative rigour, far more accurate to think of administrative vandalization. The western embassies and donor agencies pushing the devolution plan and saying it is the best thing to come Pakistan's way will have a lot to answer for. Wait till the nazims get into their stride. The mismanagement of the last year and a half will pale by comparison.
Hitherto, politicians used the bureaucracy to win power and influence. Now it is the politico, in the form of the nazim, who will sit atop the bureaucratic pyramid. Who is to prevent him from misusing this power? Gen Musharraf and his mentor in this sphere, Gen Naqvi, take this change to be the key to the golden kingdom. Concentration of authority in any field has been the ruin of Pakistan. Is it likely to be any different in this instance?
Of course devolution of power is a good thing. Sure, the old administrative system needed a knocking. Equally certain, the old deputy commissioner and commissioner's offices had outlived their utility. But let us not forget the relationship between end and means. Are the likes of Mian Azhar and Chaudhry Shujaat going to lead the nation to the promised land? Are the nazims of what must now be called the Official League going to be the heralds of a new dispensation?
Let us not fool ourselves. At issue is not any question of administrative regeneration as the think-tankers of the regime would have the nation believe. At stake is the creation of a civilian base for the military government. Once the nazims assume control of their district baronies, attention will turn to the next stage of real democracy: the election of military-friendly assemblies, at the centre and in the provinces.
Nor, if we care to remember the Ayub model with its docile and quiescent legislatures, is this such an unlikely outcome. The valuable election experience gathered by the corps commanders makes it entirely possible for the Ayubian model to be replicated in the coming round as well.
But why quarrel with the inevitable? I for my part have pre-empted even the smartest gunslingers by being the first to offer my congratulations to Gen Musharraf for the successful outcome of the nazim elections.
On Wednesday morning as he met a group of us journalists who had carried the Pakistan flag at Agra I told him, full two days before the event, to rest easy because the right kind of nazims, their hearts in the right place, were being elected. To his credit, he did not take my remark amiss, his embarrassment lasting for no more than a passing second.