I MAINTAIN a list in my head of undesirable jobs. It keeps changing as I come across occupations even more awful than the ones I had encountered earlier, but the jobs are, for one reason or another, totally unacceptable.
Take traffic cops, for instance. These poor guys stand for hours in the heat, inhaling petrol fumes and dust, and seeing cars drive through red lights without being able to do anything about it. I have yet to hear of anybody being served with a traffic violation notice at home. So not only do these unfortunate people have to suffer terrible working conditions, they do not even have the satisfaction of being able to nail most of the drivers they see breaking the law. So, when they do manage to stop a felon, they tend to make some money out of him, but then they have to maintain white uniforms on their pittance of a salary.
Sanitary workers are another group whose lives are not enviable. Quite apart from the rotten work they have to do, they suffer discrimination of the worst kind. Although many of them have converted to Christianity or Islam, the fact is that they are never allowed to forget that they or their forefathers were Hindu untouchables.
Politics is another profession that does not appeal. Apart from the fact that in Pakistan, assemblies are dissolved at the drop of a hat by ambitious generals, the type of person who generally becomes a politician is not somebody you would like to meet socially. There are exceptions, but by and large, those sitting in our assemblies are loud, uncouth and ill-educated. And with far less excuse than our traffic cops, they are often corrupt. As James Michie describes them:
“A politician when disgraced
Might crawl away and hide you’d think;
Yet spiderlike, flushed down the waste,
He clambers back into the sink.”
Highest of all in the list of undesirable jobs is the chief executive of our republic. The perks are great. Unlimited first class travel. An army of flunkies. Fleets of cars, and siren- blowing outriders to clear the traffic. An open-ended sumptuary allowance, and an un-audited secret fund to do with as you please. You’d think it couldn’t get any better, but you’d be wrong. Think of all the greasy sycophants you have to be nice to. And when, as now, the offices of the chief executive and head of state are combined with that of the army chief, you are really stretched to fight off the hordes of opportunists trying to score points with you.
But beyond these personal inconveniences, the plain fact is that Pakistan is one of the most difficult countries in the world to govern. Even when, as now, the chief executive does not have inconvenient democratic niceties to work through, he encounters endless red tape and inefficiency when trying to get the simplest of policies implemented. Periodically, Gen Musharraf proclaims that governance is improving, and that there is less corruption. But we who live at the sharp end of the bureaucracy know better. While he issues instructions to the heads of the police forces across the country to reduce crime, the fact is that it’s getting worse, not better.
Or take the situation in Balochistan and the tribal areas of the NWFP. Here, millions of Pakistanis are outside the law of the land, and pretty much free to do as they will. Thus, there are private militias that take on the army with considerable success. This does not mean that armed groups do not operate in the rest of the country: a host of sectarian and ethnic organisations are armed to the teeth and operate freely. And despite his control over a vast apparatus of coercive force, Gen Musharraf can do little to bring these people to heel.
I am sure he would like to oblige Bush by controlling our border with Afghanistan, thus relieving Karzai and coalition forces of the pressure they are under from cross-border raids carried out by resurgent Taliban. But the reality is that even our all-powerful president cannot go beyond a certain point. Within the ISI and the army, there is resistance to using inordinate force.
Historically, the people of the Tribal Areas have moved across the border as and when they wish. This, combined with the autonomy they enjoy under the constitution, makes it difficult for any government in Islamabad to get its own way. Of course, President Musharraf has made it more difficult for himself by fixing the last election, thus enabling pro-Taliban religious parties to form government in the NWFP. These parties are resistant to any action against their Taliban allies.
Even matters like education are largely beyond the chief executive’s ability to reform. For seven years now, we have seen hot air and masterly inaction emanating from President Musharraf and his ministers. Billions have been spent, with little to show for the money except more committees and more reports.
The reality remains one of ramshackle state schools, colleges and universities, ill-paid teachers, antiquated curricula and plunging standards. The mildest reforms in the syllabus are opposed tooth and nail by the religious parties.
For all the vast powers he enjoys, President Musharraf is powerless to bring Pakistan into the 21st Century. Despite seizing power with a host of pledges to modernise — reiterated time and again — the general remains hostage to the medieval agenda of the clergy and their political parties. After all the secular noises he has made, he has been unable to translate most of his promises into reality. It is true that he has shown personal courage by taking on the clerics on some issues, thus incurring the wrath of jihadis. But the overall reality is that by distancing himself from centrist parties and politicians, he has been unable to evolve a consensus on fundamental issues.
Even when he invested a vast amount of political capital and personal prestige into taking the whole nation with him on the issue of Kalabagh Dam, he was unable to forge a consensus. With each province tugging in a different direction, it is hard to see how any leader will overcome the mistrust that has been making nation-building so difficult.
On August 14, 1947, we created a state. We have yet to create a nation.