Taliban and terrorists have been consolidating their position as the rulers in Pakistan are busy in a power game. There will no exaggeration to state here that the rulers are on headon collision. The present tug of war is between the ruling circle and this is the reason that most Pakistanis have been watching the situation with great interest. There will be no exaggeration to state here that they have rejected the Pakistani politicians.
Most of the time Pakistani politics goes around the politics of United States. Almost all the politicians have been engaged in politics on creating hatred against the United States. President Musharraf is the only person who is declared US man. US President Bush has been losing the war on terrorism so Musharraf has also been losing popularity.
There will be no denying the fact that Taliban and terrorists are the rulers men, but now they must be controlled. There was a time that Osama bin Laden was working of CIA, but now he is number one enemy of America. Who was right and who was wrong? This should not be the issue. The issue is controlling these people. Now terrorists and Taliban have been making advance in various fronts.
According to a political writer Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi: The suspension of the 1973 Constitution under the garb of the declaration of emergency on November 3 by President-Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf is the fifth direct assumption of power by an army chief in the sixty years of Pakistan as an independent state.
Interestingly, the ruling coalition led by Pakistan Muslim League (PML) availed the absence of the opposition in the National Assembly to endorse the declaration of the state of emergency and the PCO on November 7, thereby becoming a partner to the undermining of the 1973 Constitution which was the very basis of the establishment of our Parliament.
Pervez Musharraf is the first army chief to stage two coups; on 12 October 1999 and 3 November 2007. The second coup contradicts the political system introduced by him in November 2002, this being an indicator of Pervez Musharraf’s own failure. His governance model based on the unity of command and centralisation of power was unable to cope with the growing participatory pressures and it felt threatened by the increasingly autonomous role of the Supreme Court.
For the first time, the assumption of power by the army chief has been challenged in the streets of the major cities of the country. The protest was initiated by lawyers who were then joined by political workers and students. Political parties have joined in as well, albeit late. Never in the past has the abrogation or suspension of the Constitution by the army chief been openly questioned; all previous coups were orderly and peaceful.
Pervez Musharraf’s decision to set aside the 1973 Constitution has made the army vulnerable to criticism by political circles and other societal groups who are aggravated by Pakistan’s return to military rule for the fifth time. The political role of army top commanders was already subjected to criticism since during the days of the judicial crisis, March-July 2007.
This time, the resurgence of this criticism is quite pronounced in the political circles and civil society in Punjab, which is traditionally viewed as the major source of support to the military. The press, however, is not publishing the on-going criticism in its totality because of the emergency restrictions. This criticism is expected to increase if Musharraf continues as the army chief and the confrontation between the political forces and the Musharraf government intensifies.
Musharraf suspended the constitution at a time when the political conditions were not conducive to such a drastic step. Politically informed and active circles and societal groups were getting ready for the general elections and their major focus was on ensuring fair and free elections. They had already been mobilised due to the lawyer’s movement for the restoration of the chief justice. In such a mobilised state of political affairs, the suspension of the constitution could not go unquestioned by political parties and civil society groups.
The first week of the state of emergency by Pervez Musharraf shows that its imposition had nothing to do with the threat of religious extremism and violence because there was no change in the government’s policy towards the tribal areas and Swat. The government has assaulted the superior judiciary and the media and unleashed brutality in the urban centres where the lawyers, societal groups and political activists have been targeted by the police and paramilitary troops.
Initially the lawyers and societal groups and political workers contested the imposition of direct military rule, but the response of the political parties was cautious.
The leadership of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a coalition partner with the ruling PML, endorsed the suspension of the constitution and other steps taken by Musharraf. Other political parties condemned Musharraf’s drastic action. However, the major opposition parties did not issue calls to their workers to go to the streets for protest. The PPP and the JUI-F had been demonstrating tacit cordiality towards Musharraf since before, as was seen in the course of the presidential elections. Other opposition parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami adopted an ambiguous approach. The only parties that adopted a clear-cut stance from the beginning were the PMLN, Imran Khan’s Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Awami National Party (ANP).
It seems that the party leaders thought that Musharraf would make some conciliatory gestures to avoid a direct confrontation with the opposition. They also hoped that international, especially American, pressure on Musharraf would mollify the situation. But by the end of the first week it became clear to political leaders that Musharraf and the top army commanders would not stop at anything less than consolidating their control on the state and society to the exclusion of the dissident political forces.
A major confrontation developed between the PPP and the government on November 9 when the PPP attempted to hold a public meeting in Rawalpindi. This confrontation is expected to intensify in the second week. The Jamaat-e-Islami has also asked its workers to stage street protests. If this situation is not defused by returning to the 1973 Constitution and holding fair and free elections at the earliest, Pakistan will suffer from intense internal political disharmony and conflict.
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