The Establishment is a clever euphemism for the thekedars of Pakistan. This is a breed of ambitious, self righteous, opinionated, status-quo hardliners in the unyielding secretariats of the army and bureaucracy. Governments have come and gone with embarrassing frequency but the establishment has forever ruled this country.
Conventional wisdom has long dictated that politicians should respect the unwritten preamble to democracy in these parts. This is embedded in the distinction between ‘office’ and ‘power’. Politicians are supposed to run for office; power is strictly reserved for the establishment. When democracy has overreached its ‘mandate’ in office, the establishment’s response has been swift and powerful.
Z.A. Bhutto rode into office on the backs of the establishment. Then he ‘usurped’ its power. Six years later, ‘they’ had no qualms in coldbloodedly restoring the equilibrium.
Poor Mr. Junejo. Goaded on by the foolish ‘young Turks’ surrounding him, he lost his head for a brief, flawed moment. And that was the end of the line for him.
Ms. Benazir Bhutto’s cavalcade into Islamabad owed as much to fortuitous circumstances as to her own brave struggles in opposition. The establishment was wary. Could she be trusted to keep the brokered peace? Sure enough, soon she was transgressing her ‘official’ writ and chipping away at ‘their’ power. Centre-state relations, ISI affairs, appointment of senior judges, retirement of Admiral Sirohey, section 245 Vs 147, promotions of senior army officers — all were viewed as audacious attempts to encroach upon ‘their’ territory.
These were irrefutable ‘offenses’. Worse, she was much too ‘soft’ [their euphemism for treason] on India, they said. Hadn’t the father betrayed the heroic Kashmiris at Simla? And now, here was the daughter positively glowing in the company of arch-enemy Rajiv Gandhi, conducting secret negotiations and bartering away state [read ‘establishment’] secrets. As for Afghanistan, the woman was denying them a free hand. Eight years of ‘national sacrifice’ could not now be swept away merely because the fickle Americans had betrayed the glorious jehad. Enough, they said, why, the woman threatens our very raison d’etre! Benazir must go, and never return.
Despite its avowed abstraction the establishment, however, is also human, and therefore fallible. In its unpropitious haste to get rid of Miss. Bhutto, it has seriously overestimated its own power just as much as it has underestimated her credibility. Unlike the hapless Mr. Junejo, she lives s charmed life in the hearts of ordinary people. And these millions of ordinary people, with their ordinary hopes and votes, are doggedly scrambling to line up behind her.
If ‘they’ could find the intellectual, economic and political resources to satisfy the hunger of these faceless masses,Miss. Bhutto might be reduced to nought before long. But, as we say, these times, they are a’changin. Freedom is becoming indivisible. It can no more be rationed out. And the establishment cannot fly forever in the face of stark realities.
The cold war is over. We are on our own. No more the luxury of a parasitic existence clutching the skirts of a superpower. No more the dubious purposes of a front line proxy state. No more living on borrowed time. Or money. The establishment must now pay its debts. And it must begin at home.
Such are the facts of life. The gaps are too many. Economic crisis, conflict in Kashmir and Afghanistan, political impasse, ethnic violence, provincial aspirations, sectarianism and a surging sea of aspirations which will not be thwarted for ever. Even the ubiquitous establishment, with all its tentacles, cannot hope to plug all of them. Which is why its desperate search for a formula to nourish its vast appetite for power is doomed.
With all her faults, whether or not Benazir Bhutto can provide a transitory breathing space, we cannot say. She has much to learn and more to prove. But there are no shortcuts. No postponement of elections, no martial law, no guided democracy. It won’t work. Everyone has to confront the pangs of growing up and squarely face reality.