Why does the Establishment Hate PPP

Why does the Establishment Hate PPP?

by

Riaz Shahid

24 September 2010

The Question of ''Why Does the Establishment hate PPP?'' is a
question discussed and debated for decades amongst intellectuals,
politicians, thinkers and Pakistanis in General. However this question
has again assumed significance in recent days as Establishment has
initiated preliminary steps to remove the fourth PP Government from
Power. Heads of professional pressure groups like Altaf Hussain under
prodding of invisible actors have publicly called on 'Patriotic
Generals' to take things in their own hands and 'cleanse' the nation
of ''corrupt politicians''. Mr.Altaf Hussain made this brazen
statement while his own party is in coalition government in centre and
Sind. The former dictator Pervez Musharaf who had almost vanished into
history is again in the news and has announced his intentions to
launch a political party shortly. His wife, the former first lady has
returned to Pakistan to his Chak Shahzad residence (something which
has been strangely ignored by the public and mainstream media). Long
time collaborators like Chaudhry Hussain have suddenly forgotten his
commitment to the independence and autonomy of Muslim League (Q) and
merged his party with that of Pir Sahib Pagara who till short time
back spared no efforts in publicly ridiculing that Chaudhrys of
Gujrat. As Head of this 'combined' Muslim League, Pir Sahib Pagara
would be tasked to 'pacify the sindhis' when PPP government is
removed. This role could have been excellently fulfilled by Ghulam
Mustafa Jatoi, the biggest landlord in Sindh and a former prime
minister and a trusted established insider but he died suddenly. There
was even a rumour that a speech had been even drafted that he would
have delivered as the 'New President of Pakistan' . As a sign of
things to come and of renewed confidence, a top journalist was
thrashed after abduction from motorway and all the King's men could
not find the perpetuators. The suo-muoto happy Supreme Court has gone
to the extent of sending the friend of the prime minister to jail.(The
same honorable court has not lifted a finger on the targeted killings
going on in Karachi continuously and religiously for past several
months) By all accounts , the die has been cast and PPP's goose has
been cooked and now its just a matter of time when its government is
send packing.

To be fair to the Establishment, PPP's current government is far from
a model of probity and good governance. Its leading lights starting
from the President himself have reputations in the field of finance
that even Al-Capone would find hard to boast. The entire
decision-making is in the hands of the president and his few selected
unelected chums with no political backgrounds and unsavory
past.Foreign Investment has dried up and cost of living has
skyrocketed especially of basic necessities. Corruption allegations
that cannot be easily discarded have been made against most top PPP
Ministers. The country's only port city is in the grip of targeted
killing and sectarian murders and the government has just stood by and
done nothing.

But there are other angles to the story. Historically 3 years is the
average age of any civilian government in Pakistan, ppp or otherwise.
Both of Nawaz Sharif's first 2 tenures ended in less than 3 years and
same is true for Junejo's government. The fact is that by the time a
civilian government in Pakistan has complete its two years, the
establishment develops a repugnance for it . It develops a feeling
that if this government is not removed, the country will not survive
and economy will collapse. The leading lights of the civilian
government are perceived as lucifers and evils incarnate and source of
all misery in the coutry. So part of the reason why this government
will go is these perceptions and psychological state.

However the story does not end here. What is overlooked is the
composition of the Establishment. The Establishment consists of a
permanent part and a non-permanent part. The permanent part is the
military, particularly its top clique and the heads of Intelligence
Agencies. The non-permanent part consists currently of Business
community(particularly those dealing in capital markets and based in
Karachi ) , influential expatriate Pakistanis(particularly working in
think-tanks and International financial institutions) , collaborators
in the political parties and pressure groups like MQM and some
powerful Karachi based Media groups and Journalists. Contrary to
public perception, the current SC Bench is only very friendly to it,
it is not a part of the non-permanent Establishment, atleast for now.
There has been quite a change in the nature of non-permanent
Establishment over the years. At one time it was the FEUDAL Class,
Religious Right and DMG Group that were its principal allies.
Towering Bureaucrats from DMG Group like Roedad Khan and Ghulam Ishaq
Khan and Iskander Mirza were once the leading lights of the
non-permanent component. Musharaf's greatest contribution to
Pakistan's political history was that he completely reshaped the
nature of the Establishment. He removed Religious Right as
Establishment's principal civilian collaborators. The DMG group was
completely destroyed by his henchman General Naqvi and the motivation
was partly corporate and partly ethnic.(This will be discussed in a
later article) The Feudal class too was totally displaced and replaced
by Financial capitalists. To be fair to Musharaf, this displacement of
the Feudal Class was a natural reflection of reduced share of
agriculture in Pakistan's GDP. Gone are the heady days of 1971 when
the feudal class united enmass to force General Yahya Khan to use
violent force against Bengali political elites in order to forestall
the land reforms that the Bengalis had promised to carry out after
coming to power. What emerged from this shakeup was an Establishment
that was entirely Punjabi and Urdu-Speaking in its background. The sad
fact is that we all try to avoid bringing ethnicity into the calculus
of political analysis despite its overwhelming significance and role.
The unspoken Dirty Dark Secret of Pakistani politics is that there are
some 'pure aryan races' and some ''Dravidian Races''. The crimes
committed by Aryan Races are ignored or tolerated or lightly punished
while that of Dravidians is dealt harshly by hangings and mysterious
deaths. Sindhi Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is sentenced to death in a cooked
up trial despite his massive contributions to strengthening national
security while the Punjabi Nawaz Sharif who supposedly tried to put
the life of an army chief in danger by trying to hijack his plane is
send off to a palace in Saudia Arabia after a brief incarceration.
Altaf Bhai can say of all the places in Delhi that '' creation of
Pakistan was the biggest mistake in the history of humanity'' and no
eyebrows are raised. But if the Balochi Nawab Akbar Bugti trys to
commit same crime, he is brutally murdered despite the fact that it
was he who as Interior Minister in 1957-58 convinced Gawadar's local
notables into agreeing to join Pakitan .

Historically the Punjabis and Urdu speakers have been the Aryran Races
of Pakistan. Pathans became part in 1951 when Nawabzada Liaquat Ali
Khan superseded the brilliant General Akbar Khan by appointing A
Junior and unknown Ayub Khan as Pakistan's first native army chief.
The motive was entirely ethnic and personal. Liaquat Ali Khan thought
that appointing a Punjabi to replace General Douglas Gracy as army
chief would make Punjabi political elites too powerful. Besides
General Akbar Khan was too brilliant, being the only Muslim to have
been made a General by the British in 200 years in India. He was
awarded a OBE in Second World War by the British for his bravery in
battle of Dunkirk. His strong headedness and tendency of stating his
point of view probably irked Pakistan's first prime minister who
decided that a meek and jovial pathan would make a better army chief.
This triumvirate of Pathans, Urdu-speakers and Punjabis constituted
what is known as Establishment till Pervez Musharaf and 9/11 came to
pass. Pathans have been on the downhill ever since 9/11. Today there
is hardly any pathan individual of stature in the Establishment.

The Dravidian Races of Pakistan as of now are the Balochis, Seraikis ,
Sindhis and Tribal Pakhtuns, the last one being a fresh entrant in
this unfortunate club. The irony is that these communities have done
impregnable and most glorious contribution to enhancing the strength
and power and glory of Pakistan's Military might and capability
vis-a-vis that of India. The Sindhi Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the father
of Pakistan's Strategic Alliance with China. He built the Steel Mill,
the PAF Kamra Aeronautical Complex (where JF17Thunders are being
built) , Port Qasim ,Heavy Mechanical Complex . It was under his
tenure that the navy got maritime reconaissance aircraft. Most of all
he brought back 90000 prisoners of war with India , got India to
vacate parts of Pakistani Punjab that it had occupied in 1971 war .
Very few people know that India was refusing to hand over Pakistani
POWs and territory until Pakistan agreed to formally give up claim to
Kashmir, accept line of control in Kashmir as international border and
try 195 Pakistani officers accused of war crimes in East Pakistan. It
was only Z.A.Bhutto's brilliance statesmanship that we were able to
make India agree to forgo these humiliating conditions. Nawab Akbar
Bugti in an earlier era was considered a patriot. He was the only
Balochi in the Quetta municipality that took the decision to accede
Baluchistan to Pakistan in 1947. To this day many Baluchi
secessionists privately curse him for this. In 1957-58, it was Akbar
Bugti who made the Baluchi notables of Gawadar agree to joining
Pakistan.He the Minister for state for Interior at that time in the
cabinet of Prime Minister Feroze Khan Noon. Gawadar has been the only
addition to Pakistani territory in its entire history of 63 years and
it was Nawab Akbar Bugti who made that possible! Bhutto's daughter
Benazir and his son- in- law had been most accomodating to the
Establishment throughout her life. She agreed to all the conditions
demanded by the Establishment in 1988 when she was at the peak of her
popularity and had the power to storm Islamabad with millions of
supporters. She surrendered Afghan Policy and Nuclear programme to the
military led by the fickle General Beg and accepted Ghulam Ishaq Khan,
Sahabzada Yaqub and Colonel cheema as president, foreign minister and
defense minister. Still that did not save her from being dismissed in
just over 20 months. In her 1993-96 tenure she made 2 monumental
contributions to Pakistan's national security. She acquired the
ballistic missile capability for the country which are the delivery
system for nuclear warheads. In order to acquire this capability, she
went to the extent of annoying a friendly America by travelling to the
pariah North Korea to sign the deal. For the benefit of the reader I
would like to state clearly the fact that without a delivery system,
nuclear weapons are useless. The ballistic missile capability is what
gives Pakistan's land forces and its commanders confidence and pride.
Secondly it was Benazir Bhutto who as prime minister and head of the
Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) gave formal official approval
on October 12, 1994 to PAF's request to collaborate with China to
manufacture JF17 Fighter jets. Till now we used to think that the
Balochi Zafarullah Jamali had to nothing to show for himself as prime
minister of Pakistan. However according to Dr.AQ Khan , the 'father of
our bum' who was himself a member of the Establishment once in the
70's and 80's , it was Jamali who saved him from being handed over to
IAEA in 2004 . Musharaf as President had agreed to an Anglo-American
request that Dr.Khan be formally handed over to IAEA which is a part
of UN. Musharaf wanted legitimacy for this action and that could come
only if the then Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali gave his assent.
When Jamali refused, Musharaf decided to replace him. Dr.Khan has made
these assertions recently and the former president has to date not
issued any rebuttals.

Let me make it clear that I am in no way fan of Dr.Khan. But to have
handed him over would have brought too much of humiliation for the
country. Pakistan would have become a pariah state and the Security
Council might have imposed economic sanctions on it .

Sindhis, Seraikis,Baluchis , Tribal Pathan have very little presence
in the top echelons of the army, beuracracy , chambers of commerce
and industry, Karachi Stock Exchange. All the top Media Conglomerates
are owned and manned by Punjab and Karachi based individuals. The
members of the Karachi Stock Exchange are almost entirely from the
Urduspeaking, Memon, and Punjabi communities. The Sindhi elites derive
their power entirely from agriculture. There has no Ziaul-Haq for them
who would open the coffers of nationalized banks for building Ittefaq
and Chaudhry empires. Punjabi Muslims have entered thoroughly the
phase of Industrial capitalism while Urdu speakers and Memons and Agha
Khanis have entered the phase of Financial Capitalism in which wealth
is derived from control of high finance. It has always been an
'enterprising' experience listening to opinions of capitalists,
corporate executives and retired military beauracrats from Punjab and
Karachi on the current government. The most highly educated of them
denigrate the current president's linguistic background and declare
the Sindhis , Baluchis and tribal pathans as rustic simpletons who are
genetically indisposed of being at the helm of affairs of the nation
or of being given jobs in the corporate sector. Anybody who would like
to disagree with this contention is advised to read 'Khaki Shadows'
and "Working with Zia'' written by Urdu speaking General KM.Arif ,
who was General Zia's Vice chief of army staff and most trusted
confidant in the Establishment. The kind of hatred expressed towards
the dead Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto is such that any fair man would be
rankled. KM Arif has gone to the extent of publishing the photograph
of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's corpse lying on a charpoy covered with a
chaddar while funeral prayers are being conducted by the muezzin of
the village mosque. Even the most hard headed would be saddened by the
picture but not KM Arif who contends that Bhutto's painful end is a
display of god's wrath and power.

So basically by now the Establishment is in the final stages of
removing the current dispensation. It feels that Zardari and his
ministers are threats to the country and that they would not be men
enough if they are not removed from power. They think that they can
put the country on a road to a better and more prosperous future if
the ppp dispensation is replaced by technocrats selected by them. They
are having illusions of grandeur and of invincibility. Also worrying
them is the possibility that if this government completes tenure, a
precedent would be set for a civilian government should complete its
term. Quite a few names come in one's mind when it comes to the
replacements for the current rulers. One is a best buddy of the
current Chief Justice who tenure would end soon in a few months. He
could be an excellent bridge between the Court and the Establishment.
At another time a former BA Pass Head of the country's premiere
regulatory authority comes in my mind. He could give excellent moral
legitimacy. Another potential care-taker premiere could be a former
governor of State Bank who is heading the nation's most well known
business school currently. His emergence would give assurance to
foreign investors and certainly please the financial capitalists of
Pakistan as well our principal donors.

My only appeal to the Establishment: please no bloodshed, hangings,
incarcerations, media trials, this time! Use the "Ayubian Model'' of
1958 in which the civilian dispensation was removed without any
killings, beatings, trials and for this was declared the "bloodless
revolution'' by its originators.