The recent events in Pakistan have once again brought the nation’s political system back into the international spotlight. Questions such as how in a nation’s 75 years history, has no prime minister ever completed their term? Why has only one government in the nation’s history ever completed its full term (in 2013) and why has the military ruled for 33 of those years are common questions people have.
Pakistan’s political system is a continuation of the British Raj’s occupation that abolished Islamic rule in the Indian Subcontinent. Even though the Muslims shed their pure blood to establish Pakistan in the name of Islam, it was the British Parliament that created Pakistan’s initial legislation under her Indian Independence Act of 1947.
Even though Pakistan produced her first constitution in 1956, this and every subsequent constitution, including the present 1973 constitution, has been framed around secular British law. Foreign interference has been a virus that has infected every part of Pakistan’s political system – it was a system created by the departing British Empire only to be eventually dominated by the US. Elections have never changed the fundamental direction of Pakistan in her political history.
Pakistan’s Largest Corporation
Pakistan’s military is the most important institution in the country. It manages the country’s security, foreign policy and the country’s strategic assets. Pakistan’s army leaders and Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) exert a controlling influence over most of Pakistan’s policies. This power is the reason why it has ruled the country for over half of Pakistan’s history. During this period, various leaders of the army took over the civilian apparatus which impacted not just the country’s political system, but the country as a whole. The most dramatic of these was during the era of General Zia-ul-Haq when the Islamic sentiments within the army were used to support America’s proxy war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union.
The military has become a corporation with its own economic interests, much like in Egypt. In 2016, the Senate was informed that the armed forces run over 50 commercial entities worth over $20 billion – over 10% of the national economy. These ranged from petrol pumps to huge industrial plants, banks, bakeries, schools and universities, hosiery factories, milk dairies, stud farms and cement plants. However, the jewels in their crown are the eight housing societies in eight major towns where prime lands in well-manicured cantonments and plush civil localities in the possession of these societies are allotted to military personnel at highly subsidised rates.
The military’s position at the apex of the country and the fact that it controls significant economic assets, makes it without parallel in the country and means no other entity can compete with it. The only entity that can compete with it, is not domestic, but external.
Foreign Interference
Whilst the US is not part of Pakistan’s political system, she does have influence over Pakistan’s participants. America has had a controlling influence over Pakistan and her real rulers – the military, from the country’s very origins. The US showered Pakistan with aid and arms during the Cold War and this made Pakistan military top brass work to protect US interests in the region in return for this economic aid.
Through the US Ambassador in Pakistan, the CIA presence in the country, as well as the envoy to the region and the various US officials that constantly make trips to Pakistan: the US has been able to gain influence over Pakistan and dominate her institutions and political media.
The US, through her presence in Afghanistan, was able to reorientate the military in Pakistan to focus on the tribal areas instead of India. The US has even bypassed Pakistan’s troika set-up, i.e. the Presidency, the Prime Minister and the COAS, and deal directly with those in charge of different institutions in Pakistan.
General Musharraf joined America’s war on terror in 2001 and in line with America’s demands began de-Islamifying the army and society. Musharraf began the process of clamping down on those who espoused Islam. Musharraf hounded the Islamic-minded officers. He sought early retirement of some, deployed others to far afield posts and a few were court-martialed.
General Ashfaq Kayani continued with this agenda. However, he removed army personnel from civilian roles, which was a legacy of the Musharraf-era and aggressively pursued America’s War on Terror into the tribal areas. Under Kayani’s leadership the country’s strategic doctrine and posture were altered in 2013. The India centric doctrine was revised and now defines internal threats as the greatest risk to the country’s security.
General Raheel Sharif pursued America’s war in the tribal areas in order to weaken the Afghan resistance in afghanistan. When General Bajwa became chief he supported America’s Afghan strategy and brought the various Taliban factions to the negotiating table. Bajwa went further than any previous General by launching Pakistan’s National Security Policy (NSP) which linked Pakistan’s national security to geoeconomics – namely the military would focus on the domestic economy and no longer see its job to deal with India. Bajwa said: “It is our sincere belief that the route to peaceful resolution of Pak-India disputes – including the core issue of Kashmir – runs through comprehensive and meaningful dialogue,” he said, while addressing the passing out parade ceremony of Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) cadets in Kakul in 2018. Peace with India, despite what is taking place in Kashmir and although started by previous generals, was made official national security policy by General Bajwa.
As the military is at the apex of Pakistan and at the same time it plays the role of a vassal for US strategic interests, the people of Pakistan have never had a political system that represents them or caters for them.
Pakistan’s Dynasties
As is common across the Indian Subcontinent Pakistan’s political system has been dominated by dynastic families who have run governments for rather short periods. Due to the army’s controlling influence only one civilian government has ever finished its term in Pakistan’s 75-year history.
The first of these is Pakistan’s Kennedy family, the Bhutto’s. The large land-owning family from Sindh started the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in 1967 and has its support base in Sindh. From its inception, the PPP was headed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was the ruler of Pakistan from 1970 until a military coup removed him from power in 1977. His subsequent hanging in 1979 led to his daughter Benazir Bhutto, taking the leadership of the PPP.
Benazir took power twice in Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and then from 1993 to 1996. During both her terms in office, she proved she was an incompetent ruler and corruption was the centrepiece of her governments. On both occasions her governments were dismissed, failing to even complete their terms. She went into exile from 1998 spending the next decade shuttling between Dubai, UAE, US and the UK working to reverse her flagging fortunes. When General Musharraf’s position began to weaken, talks ensued in 2006 between US officials and British officials to bring Benazir back to power. Whatever the rhetoric at the time, her return was a deal between the US and Britain that was highlighted in some detail by the Washington Post in December 2007: “For Benazir Bhutto, the decision to return to Pakistan was sealed during a telephone call from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the call culminated more than a year of secret diplomacy and came only when it became clear that the heir to Pakistan’s most powerful political dynasty was the only one who could bail out Washington’s key ally in the battle against terrorism.”
Asif Ali Zardari emerged as the ruler on a wave of optimism due to the death of Benazir Bhutto – Zardari had however been long groomed by the US. Prior to becoming President of Pakistan, Zardari was groomed by Zalmay Khalilzad (former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the UN) to play a role in the post-Musharraf era. The New York Times reported their relationship in much detail in 2008: “Mr Khalilzad had spoken by telephone with Mr Zardari, the leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, several times a week for the past month until he was confronted about the unauthorised contacts, a senior United States official said. A senior Pakistani official said that the relationship between Mr Khalilzad and Mr Zardari went back several years, and that the men developed a friendship while Mr Zardari was spending time in New York with Ms Bhutto.”
Mr Khalilzad, being a political animal, understood the value of reaching out to Pakistan’s political leadership long before the bureaucrats at the US State Department realised this would be “useful at a future date,” the official said. The Ambassador “did not make policy or change policy, he just became an alternate channel.” After the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari manipulated Benazir’s will and assumed co-chairmanship of the PPP with his son Bilawal. In effect, Zardari became the leader of the PPP. Zardari then scrupulously sidelined all those elements of the PPP that could potentially undermine his authority.
The Bhutto’s used their time in office to loot and plunder Pakistan. Their terms in office saw corruption reach such epidemic levels that the army was forced to make regime change. Shayam Bhatia, in his biography of Benazir Bhutto said: “…..Benazir and her family had suffered great economic hardship in Pakistan, and later while living in exile. They were nearly broke when she returned to Pakistan. Therefore, Zardari and she resorted to corruption to acquire the economic means to sustain themselves politically. Benazir and her husband had indulged in unabashed corruption.” (Shayam Bhatia, Goodbye Shahzadi, A Political Biography of Benazir Bhutto, 2010)
The Nawabs of Punjab
The Sharif family form a key dynastic family in Pakistan’s political system. They have dominated Punjab’s political scene for the best part of four decades. Nawaz Sharif has been in power three times now from 1990-93 and 1997-99, until he was overthrown in a coup by General Musharraf. He was then in power from 2013 to 2017. He has never completed a full term on three occasions. The Sharifs are an industrial family that dominate Pakistan’s commercial landscape. As the owners of Ittefaq Group, a leading steel mill conglomerate, Nawaz Sharif is one of the country’s wealthiest industrialists. In 2005, Daily Pakistan reported that the Sharif family is the fourth wealthiest family in the country and second wealthiest political leader with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion.
When Nawaz Sharif was in power his governments had fallen due to corruption. On the three occasions Nawaz Sharif led the government, he virtually bankrupted the nation. Nawaz Sharif, when in power, had served the American agenda for the region. He confirmed his pro-American position in a WikiLeaks cable where he stated to the then Ambassador Anne Patterson that “he was ‘pro-American’. However publicly, he sometimes criticises US policies.” He then went on further in the leak that “he was grateful to the US for selecting General Kayani as the Pakistan Army chief.” This explains the widely held belief among Pakistani politicians that US help is crucial in seeking the top job.
The new Prime Minister Shabaz Sharif has stood by his elder brother and protected the family fortune. With his image of a workaholic and infrastructure development he has ensured the family fortune only increased.
Pakistan’s Most Famous Cricketer
Former Cricketer turned politician, Imran Khan, established the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 1996. After spending decades in the political wilderness, he turned to the ‘electables’ in 2017 and with the help of the army, he became Prime Minister. For long, Imran Khan was the only member of PTI, that’s why he turned to other established politicians in order to perform well in elections. But his failure on the economic front saw him ousted in a vote of no confidence before the end of his term.
Imran Khan’s platform includes rhetoric of a new Pakistan which resonates with the youth, professional and diaspora around the world. But once in office Imran Khan turned to the same old politicians, especially those from the Musharraf era. All of this was detrimental to his message but with all the political players marred by corruption, Imran Khan is viewed as the best of the worst options.
The US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter, when asked by the BBC regarding the possibility of an anti-US government in Pakistan – in case Nawaz Sharif or Imran Khan get elected in 2013 elections, said that he has met both the leaders who have assured a pro-US government.
The ‘Electables’
These are individuals or families who have personal clout in an area and a sizable vote bank which is independent from affiliation to any political party. These electables, whether in the form of feudal landlords or dynasties, continue to dominate the country’s political landscape and change their party affiliation every election. Prominent electables include Shah Mehmood Qureshi from Multan, the Chaudhary Shajaat family of Gujrat and the Khatar family of Attock.
Pakistan’s Clerics
In Pakistan, some corrupt clerics have hijacked Islam for their own political objectives. They have used the sincere emotions that the people have for Islam, to gain political influence and have misled them and other sincere scholars along the way. These individuals who have attempted to project an image that they are the ones who are looking after the interests of Islam, are in fact no different to the ‘secular’ politicians who inhabit the same political system. These clerics use Islam to get to power, yet abandon it once they have gained their positions, choosing to participate in the failed secular system as per every other politician.
Conclusions
It is accurate to state that Pakistan is not an independent nation, but rather a nation subordinate to a foreign power, i.e. the US. The political system in Pakistan is dominated by dynastic families, feudal landlords and opportunist groups, individuals and politicians. Their sole aim is to gain power and enrich themselves, irrespective of the consequences. When in power they legislate in a way to protect and maintain their own interests.
Elections are the life-support to this subordinate system and this is the reason why even a sincere individual will be unable to bring change through such a political system dominated by the US on the one hand and opportunists on the other. As all the politicians are competing with each other, they are prepared to ally and work against each other and throw each other under the bus when the opportunity arises. This is why the governments struggle to last in Pakistan as they are not for the people, but for a few to enrich themselves. The politicians of Pakistan and the people are worlds apart.