Dealing with Musharraf and army: The task before Gilani

Pakistan of today is what India was in 1977 when it emerged from the authoritarian rule of Indira Gandhi. People in Pakistan feel that it is a new independence as people in India felt then. The Pakistanis are more effusive because they see the melting down of military rule which had been there for nearly 50 years out of their 60-year-old independence.

The first job of the government in Delhi after the emergency was to dismantle the structure Indira Gandhi had put up. The new government at Islamabad has resolved to do the same: dismantle the structure that President Pervez Musharraf, then also the Chief of Army Staff, had created during the emergency.

On the top of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's government is the restoration of some 60 judges who had refused to take oath of allegiance to President Musharraf. The reinstatement of judges does not seem to present much difficulty because the 30-odd judges in their place will be absorbed.

The hitch is over the reappointment of Chief Justice Itifkhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Another Chief Justice is already in place, presiding over the Supreme Court. If he does not step down, how can Chaudhry be appointed?

Yet, his reinstatement has been the issue over which the lawyers carried out a 40-day-long agitation. In fact, the agitation woke up civil society which can rightly take credit for stoking fires of revolt against Musharraf. Lawyers and journalists are the ones who have won Pakistan new independence.

Chaudhry, after house arrest for four months, is already touring the country. A reception at Quetta in his honour was breathtaking. He has become a symbol of defiance. The ultimatum of one month to the government from the day of its formation to reinstate him and other judges is already a week old. The government will probably bring a resolution in Parliament to restore the status quo ante. It has no other option after Nawaz Sharif, the leader of Muslim League (N), and Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of Pakistan People's Party, both of whom together wield a two-thirds majority power in the Pakistan National Assembly, are committed to the lawyers' demand. There are bound to be repercussions on Musharraf who, a rumour has it, may be tried for treason. But there is hardly anybody to defend him. By giving support to Gilani at the time of confidence motion, Musharraf's party, Muslim League (Quaid), has also turned its back on him.

The second priority before the government is how to restore the pre-eminence of civil over military. That the army officers posted at key civil positions are being recalled is a welcome step. But they have been posted right to the village level. All of them will have to go back to barracks. Yet, this will not sort out the bigger question, that of supremacy. Nawaz Sharif's stand is that the status of military should be like the one that prevails in India. Zardari appears to have different ideas, but he too cannot afford to have the military looking over the shoulders of a civil government.

When Benazir Bhutto was the prime minister, the practice was that she had to go to the military headquarters to discuss matters which included political ones. What is the position now? It is a promising start that Chief of Army Staff Parvez Kayani called on Prime Minister Gilani to congratulate him.

The meeting was significant as the roots of the army are so deep that policies are often formulated after consulting the top brass. Returning to the barracks, as Gilani has suggested, means that the military would have to be apolitical, a tradition or trait not known in Pakistan. Will the military agree to play second fiddle when it has practically ruled the country for some 50 years?

Another task before the new government is the freedom of media which suffered hardship during the agitation for the restoration of democracy. The regulatory authority has to be demolished, not transferred from Home Ministry to Information Ministry. A partial relaxation has no relevance. The press has to be free because it is one of the pillars on which a democratic set-up rests.

With Sherry Rehman as Minister for Information, the media should have no fears because she has been a leading journalist herself. The jihadis may pose a problem to Pakistan because Musharraf had encouraged them to be a law unto themselves and train their guns against India. It was the operation against Lal Masjid at Islamabad that infuriated them and made the military their target. The jihadis would differentiate between the new government and Musharraf and wait to see how Gilani treated them.

The same thing holds good for the Taliban operating in the territory between Afghanistan and the NWFP. Nawaz Sharif was quite categorical before the visiting US dignitaries that Pakistan would like to talk to the Taliban directly. Gilani has endorsed the stand. The problem is not that the Taliban wanting certain facilities but of establishing a country of their own.

Talks can pacify militants, not insurgents. Both have different targets, the Taliban belong to the latter category. What Pakistan faces in every sphere is the disrespect for law and values. I do not think that political parties can revive values even if they pool their strength because they violate them every day. They can probably instil faith in the rule of law. They must first know how they lost it.

The best way is to appoint a commission to find out the wrongs done during the emergency imposed by Musharraf. India, too, went over the exercise and found to its horror that the topmost officers had surrendered to unconstitutional methods out of fear.

Indira Gandhi returned to power before the guilty could be punished, but the Gilani government has all the time to punish those who were responsible for the excesses, such as the house arrests of judges and a few others. If the nation is to preserve the fundamental values of a democratic society every person must display a degree of vigilance and willingness to sacrifice. Without the awareness of what is right and a desire to act according to what is right, there may be no realisation of what is wrong.

This holds good as much for Pakistan as for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

(The writer is a veteran Indian journalist and former diplomat. He was also one-time member of Rajya Sabha, the Indian parliament’s upper house)