Pakistan: Missing the point

IF Pakistani politicians have a talent, it is the ability to waste opportunities for meaningful change even when these are handed to them on a silver platter. For all its symbolic importance, the Supreme Court’s short order in the Asghar Khan case is in the news for all the wrong reasons. In no uncertain terms, the order declares that “it has been established” that former generals Aslam Beg and Asad Durrani “acted in violation of the constitution” by rigging the 1990 elections. And yet what is getting lost in the heat of the ensuing political battle is precisely this point, which is also the most important point — the role of the generals. Between the ruling party’s attempts to make political capital against the PML-N and the latter’s attempts to defend its reputation and argue about the FIA’s lack of independence, the focus has shifted to which politician received how much money. Meanwhile, those who did the real and enduring damage to Pakistani democracy are watching comfortably from the sidelines of this schoolyard brawl. In part the room for this distraction from the real issue has also been created by the SC order itself. After leaving no doubt about the generals’ guilt, it does nothing to hold them to account beyond throwing the ball in the government’s court. In a slew of high-profile cases this court has found ways to enforce accountability directly or appointed people to do so and then monitored their progress. From directly appointing investigation commissions to demanding status updates from law-enforcement agencies and government officials to bypassing the NA speaker and disqualifying the prime minister, it has not hesitated to take action itself. And yet, in this preliminary order at least, it has simply asked the government to take the “necessary steps” against the generals without specifying what these should be. This lack of urgency from both the SC and the government is worrying mostly because Pakistani democracy may not be out of the woods yet. Memories are still fresh of the ISI propping up the PML-Q in the 2002 elections. The defence secretary has said that the agency’s political cell had stopped functioning five years ago — implying it was active until very recently. Even now, there are suspicions that certain interest groups and political parties are being supported by the establishment. The military’s involvement in politics may be less blatant this election cycle, but we do not know that it is not taking place. Nor will we know so long as the SC and the government shy away from holding past manipulators to account and politicians continue to focus on fighting each other.