Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan, it seems, wants to lord it over Pakistan until the good Lord determines otherwise. And this, despite the fact that neither Mr Nawaz Sharif nor Ms Benazir Bhutto, nor indeed any other politician of repute, is terribly keen on the idea.
GIK’s strategy is transparent enough. Divide and rule, and to hell with the country. This is how the drama has thus far been enacted. Act 1 (How GIK weakened BB and eventually got rid of her). Scene 1: GIK exploits 8th amendment to usurp BB’s powers. Scene 2: GIK helps sow dissension between BB and Gen Aslam Beg (GAB). Scene 3: GIK promises GAB an upstairs slot in exchange for helping boot BB out and bring NS in.
Act 2 (How GIK got rid of GAB). Scene 1: GIK persecutes BB, strengthens NS. Scene 2: GIK helps NS get rid of GAB. In exchange, NS ditches Gen Hameed Gul and allows GIK to bring in Gen Asif Nawaz (GAN).
Act 3 (GIK’s tactics to win another term as President) Scene 1: GIK undermines NS by not allowing him to patch up with BB; he also fosters discord between NS and GAN. Scene 2: Pressure on NS mounts as GIK plays footsie with NDA, BB is persuaded to stop attacking GIK and concentrate on NS who goes up the wall by GIK’s latest remark: “When have I said that NS’s regime is all right?”
Act 4 is enveloped in tension and mystery. Will NS promise to elect GIK as President next year? If so, how then will GIK defuse BB, NDA and GAN? If not, will GIK boot NS out? How? When?
While we acknowledge that Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan is the most tenacious player of a cynical power-game, the quintessence of high drama is its unexpected twists and turns. It is this, at the climactic end, which makes it a non sum-zero game. There is therefore no certainty that NS, GAN, BB, and NDA will all duly enter and exit on GIK’s cues. That’s when the winners of today may unexpectedly be scuttled by the villains of yesterday.
As the sword of Ishaq Khan dangles over his head, Nawaz Sharif’s whiz kids must be feverishly working out their own strategy. How about this one for starters? Go along with GIK now by promising to elect him as President next December. That should relieve the immediate pressure. By late next year, GIK will be a lame duck; that’s when it will be a perfect moment to ditch him, elect a pliant President, get rid of the 8th amendment and start planning on a new, more amenable COAS. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Nor should BB’s autonomy be underestimated. She wants to get rid of both NS and GIK. If she can produce some fireworks either now or later, she may yet provoke GAN to think unthinkable thoughts and jeopardize all of GIK’s and NS’s well-laid counter plans.
Will the Drama end with Act Four or will it be extended to include Act Five and Six at least? There is, as wise men say, many a slip between the cup and the lip. GIK could so easily end up being clever by half.
This tension is totally unnecessary. The people of this country are fed up with one political drama after another. All they want is good, clean government, a semblance of law and order, education for their children, health for their families and employment for all. They have seen through the shallow performance of Benazir Bhutto, they are angry about Nawaz Sharif’s corruptions and they are fed up with Ishaq Khan’s immoral machinations. Progressively, too, they are becoming disenchanted with “democracy”. After all, the freedom to speak, which is what “democracy” amounts to at the moment, doesn’t fill empty stomachs or warm cold hearths. Is it too difficult to imagine why they shouldn’t welcome someone who comes along and offers to give them what they want in exchange for depriving some of “us” of the right to speak our minds on a full stomach?
Why then shouldn’t President Ishaq Khan stop playing games, effect a national reconciliation, clear the decks and go home in peace, if not honour? Maybe then, our politicians will learn to make “democracy” work by concentrating on issues and not conspiracies.
We’re not the only ones who want Mr Khan to quit. One lot of critics wants him out because it hopes Nawaz Sharif can have an even longer joyride at the nation’s expense. Another is concerned with paving the way for Benazir Bhutto’s return to power.
Our concerns are different. We believe Mr Khan’s obdurate behaviour is inimical to necessary political reform and long-term stability. That he, more than anyone else, is responsible for the political anarchy which plagues these transitional times. That any “change”, if it is instigated by him and leaves him in a powerful position, is bound to be self-defeating and purposeless.
It would be a cruel joke on this country if this dramatic farce is allowed to mock our integrity and intelligence. Mr Ishaq Khan should show statesmanship, make up with Bhutto and persuade Sharif to hold genuinely free and fair elections in 1993. Then he should go home and let the two young politicians match their wits before the people of Pakistan.