Tuesday, February 15, 2011

ANOTHER MARTIAL LAW?


This article appeared in the Pakistan Today on the 13th of February 2011. Due to a glitch, it is not available online yet. This, therefore, is my own document. 

By Rabia Ahmed

Should the beating continue until morale improves?

It is time both MQMs Altaf Hussain and PML-F’s chief Pir Pagara did refresher courses on Jinnah, who said in an Eid Message in 1943, ‘Grave political issues cannot be settled by the cult of the knife, or by gangsterism.  There are parties and parties, but the difference between them cannot be resolved by attacks on the party leaders.  Nor can political views be altered by threats of violence.‘

Mr Pagara has thumbed his nose at the Sindh government by suggesting that Karachi could do with a spot of martial law to improve its law and order situation, while Mr Hussain took a swipe at the PML-N by suggesting the same for the Punjab, calling it an unavoidable revolution.

Pir Pagara
While Pir Sahab is probably used to resolving issues by slaughtering little varicoloured goats which would explain such a suggestion for a place like Karachi, I have to say I find Mr Hussain who lives in England himself, and whose party the MQM has been heavily implicated in the violence and target killings in that city, has some nerve making any such suggestion. Not just this, in a riotous example of trapping himself within his own argument he pleads with the armed forces to support the masses in their move to usher in this revolution, saying that if necessary he would return to Pakistan to help the masses in their efforts, adding that no military or judiciary would be able to stand in his way in such an instance.

Just what do you want to do, Mr Hussain? Improve the law and order situation by asking the military to support the masses in overriding the constitution, or help it to improve by forbidding the military to stop you when you come galumphing in to override the constitution yourself, defying the judiciary in the process?

Methinks thou art seriously confused, sire, and thou art confusing the people too!

To promote yet another martial law for a country already beaten to a pulp by several is hardly the sign of intelligent leadership. Or is the idea to continue the beatings until morale improves?

No country has prospered under martial law. In Pakistan, military rule has only served to destroy what systems we had, and once in place, no martial law administrator has been willing to leave his position, so martial law remained in place until removed by force.

In addition, to which of our martial law administrators can we point and say ‘there goes a great intellect,’ or ‘there a great administrator’?

Corruption and disorder, a hallmark of governance in Pakistan have stayed firmly in place through each successive military government. Every civilian government that succeeded martial law, although as corrupt and disordered, has placed its troubles directly at the door of the preceding martial law. What’s more, any unrest that may have been stifled as a result of military rule always re-emerged with as much intensity if not more, when martial law lifted.

What then is the precedent on which another martial law is being advocated?

It is the reasons for unrest that have to be dealt with, and military rulers are rarely good at dealing with sensitive matters sensitively. It is not their job, and neither is governance.

The oath taken by members of the Armed Forces is prescribed in the Constitution of Pakistan in Article 244 of the third schedule. It goes as follows: “I do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan and uphold the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan which embodies the will of the people, that I will not engage myself in any political activities whatsoever, and that I will honestly and faithfully serve Pakistan in the Pakistan Army (or Navy, or Air Force) as required by and under the law. May Allah Almighty help and guide me. Amen.

If martial law is being advocated as an emergency measure, according to precedent, and unlike most countries of the world where it lifts when the emergency does, we are likely to be stuck with it yet again. And when that happens, there will be more food for recrimination, and finger pointing, making television anchors the only persons happy with the situation, and apparently Altaf Bhai and the Pir.

Sometimes that is what people want, when they are unwilling to tackle the issues that actually require dealing with. Does that apply in this case?

May Allah Almighty help and guide us all, and save us from people who claim to be trying to do so. Amen.



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