The smile on Nawaz Sharif’s face following his party’s electoral win has vanished since he became prime minister and realized the enormity of the challenges facing him. This is good news. It means he understands the gravity of the problem, which is a first step in trying to resolve it. This is in agreeable contrast to the grin pasted on President Asif Zardari’s face in the five years of the PPP regime when the government behaved like an ostrich while everything went to pieces around it.
With hindsight, however, President Zardari had a measure of support and advice to offer the new prime minister. “Democracy has arrived”, he noted in his presidential address to parliament, “there is no place for dictators in Pakistan today”. He congratulated himself for having the “honor to be the first elected civilian in the history of Pakistan to oversee the transfer of power in a democratic manner,” adding “it is a cause for which Shaheed Benazir Bhutto dedicated her life. It is a cause for which I spent 11 and a half years in prison.” He commended the PPP-led parliament for amending the constitution to make the judiciary and ECP independent and for removing the sweeping powers of the President and making the Prime Minister all-powerful.
But he was equivocal about trying former army generals, especially General Pervez Musharraf, who had abrogated the Constitution to lead military dictatorships. “It is for this august Parliament and the government to devise an appropriate and wise policy”, he told Parliament. Considering that Mr Zardari assured safe passage to General Musharraf in 2008 and didn’t do anything to prosecute him later, the use of the words “appropriate and wise policy” left the impression that he is not in favour of holding military generals accountable for their unconstitutional interventions. Clearly, he owes his five-year term to a policy of appeasing, even buttering up, the military whenever the occasion so demanded.
In much the same vein, he emphasized that militancy, extremism, and terrorism pose the greatest threat to Pakistan’s national security. “We need strong leadership to overcome the threat. We are ready to make peace with those willing to give up violence. But we should also be ready to use force against those who challenge the writ of the state,” he said. It may be recalled that the Zardari government first tried to make peace with the TTP in 2009 and then went to war with it. Now the Sharif government faces the same dilemma, so Mr Zardari has not closed its options.
He also spoke about US drone attacks on Pakistani soil, and violations of Pakistan’s sovereignty. “Drone attacks are a serious violation of sovereignty and international law. They are also counterproductive and are not acceptable.” This comes from the leader of a government that implicitly allowed drone attacks, as did the Musharraf regime earlier, on the advice of the military, and echoes another handwringing dilemma for the Sharif regime. The drones are sorely needed against the TTP liability but also hurt the Haqqani-network assets of Pakistan in the Af-Pak endgame.
Mr Sharif’s early policy decisions also merit comment. There are misgivings over Chaudhry Nisar’s appointment as interior minister because of an unfortunate giveaway remark by his son on his Face Book page: “Malik Riaz, we are coming for you”. This smacks of settling personal scores and harks back to the vindictive campaigns of the last Sharif regime against its political and media opponents.
The approach to the Foreign Affairs and Defence ministries, which remain in the PM’s hands, makes for gridlock and confusion. Sartaj Aziz and Tariq Fatemi will presumably both sit in the PM’s Office and exercise their mutually undefined writs of National Security and Foreign Affairs over the Foreign Office and Defence Ministries. The installation of Pakistan’s Ambassador to Washington will further muddy the waters: how will the Ambassador juggle orders from Mr Aziz, Mr Fatemi, the Foreign Secretary and the PM? Too many cooks are bound to spoil the broth.
The budgetary exercise is also disappointing for being too cautious. There is nothing in it for the poor and not sufficient sacrifice for the rich to make for an equitable burden sharing. But it is significant that grounds for welcoming the IMF back to Pakistan are being readied – the government is going to print Rs 300 billion in the next two weeks and push the fiscal deficit up to nearly 9% by end June so that the back of the circular debt in the power sector can be broken and some load shedding reduced while medium terms energy plans are implemented. A reduction in government spending on itself is part of the IMF conditions. In this manner, the government expects to defray international debt payments due this year by acquiring new debt and maintaining forex reserves and currency stability.
But this is the beginning of policy formation in a difficult environment. It is bound to suffer hiccups. The government needs time, and patience from the people. – See more at: http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20130614&page=1#sthash.ddJ0dHwp.dpuf