Mr Akhtar Mengal, the deposed chief minister of Balochistan, had a running battle with Islamabad over the past twelve months. The province was short of funds but Islamabad couldn’t care two hoots. It was not taken into confidence when nuclear tests were ordered in its backyard. Its apprehensions regarding the proposed privatisation of Pakistan Petroleum Ltd ― from which the province derives billions of rupees in gas surcharge revenues ― were ignored. It was sidelined when Islamabad signed a deal with an American investor to grant fishing rights off its coastline. It protested over the federal government’s illegal waiver of provincial property/establishment fees of up to US$ 150 million to three independent power projects in 1994 but no one gave it a hearing. In the end, Islamabad perceived Mr Mengal’s government to be a troublemaker and decided to get rid of it.
Mr Mengal’s government was no paragon of virtue. But neither is Islamabad. The end result is renewed instability in Balochistan. Twenty five years after Sardar Ataullah Mengal’s government was booted out by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1973 and there was a resurgence of sub-nationalism in the province, his son’s government has met the same fate. Since the son is a chip off the old block, he has grasped the outstretched hand of Mr Wali Khan, much as his father did in 1973, and strengthened the united front of sub-nationalists against Islamabad.
Now Benazir Bhutto is threatening to sing the same tune. She too has grasped Mr Wali Khan’s hand and promised a show of solidarity with the NWFP and Balochistan later this month. The Sindhi sub-nationalists are also lining up behind her to demonstrate their anger at Big Brother Punjab’s bid to ram the Kalabagh dam down their throats.
This sub-nationalist backlash has enveloped the MQM and the Sindh assembly. Sindhi and Mohajir representatives have denounced the Kalabagh dam and joined the front against Punjab. It is therefore only a matter of time before the Sindh assembly is sent packing.
The “regionalist” backlash is gathering momentum. This does not bode well for the federation as it grapples with an unprecedented, multi-dimensional crisis. There is hardship all round. Our economy faces meltdown. Law and order are in short supply. Our people are fearful and angry. Terrorism is rampant in Karachi. Sectarianism is rife in Punjab. Our borders are porous. Neighbouring Afghanistan is enmeshed in civil war. Neighbour India is flexing its muscle. America has got us by the short and curly. Without internal stability and unity, how will we cope?
We won’t, certainly not as long as Nawaz Sharif is around. Everything he has done since coming to power again is based on rank opportunism and personal ambition. He spent one full year slaying erstwhile allies like Farooq Leghari and Sajjad Ali Shah. He made hollow alliances with the ANP, MQM and BNP and then broke them when he couldn’t deliver his share of the bargain. His pro-India initiatives evaporated in a puff of smoke because they were based on wishful thinking rather than principles. His pro-Taliban stance has exacerbated the civil war in Afghanistan instead of bringing it peace. His pro-business perception has emboldened traders to thumb their noses at the tax collector and loan defaulters to go scot free. His unthinking pronouncement on the Kalabagh Dam has angered significant sections of regional opinion. His broken promises have provoked bitter resentment among the masses. His overbearing demeanour has divided and weakened the judiciary. And his nuclear tests have left him bereft of international friends.
Our patience with Mr Sharif has run out, and rightly so. He has been in power for about 15 years Punjab finance minister 1981-1985, Punjab chief minister 1985-1990 and prime minister 1990-1993 and 1997-. Can anyone point to a single constructive act of wisdom or foresight by Mr Sharif during all those years? The only thing he has to show for his efforts is a phenomenal increase in his family’s personal fortunes, and that too at the expense of the state.
But it is no longer a matter of being patient with any particular leader or party. The issue is now much larger and more complex than that. This political system, the interests which prop it up and which in turn are spawned by it, the economic and political relationship between social classes and regions, the role of ideology in nation-building, the relationship between domestic and foreign policy, the definition of national security, the nature and sources of law, the economic strategy of growth and distribution every basic and fundamental assumption underlying the convoluted and heart-rending relationship between the people and the state in the past fifty years has to be re-examined and recast afresh before we can come to grips with this crisis and chart a way out of it.
Frankly speaking, we don’t know who will do this and how. But one thing we do know. The one who casts the first stone against this rotten system will reap a harvest of hope as powerful as the impulse of independence fifty years ago. Are we destined to rise like a phoenix from the ashes or fated to sink like Titanic?